Background Information
Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary
Background Information
The Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary (OPCS) was established under the Executive Order No. 1 of October 2022 designating it as the most senior office in the executive arm of the Government after the President and the Deputy President. H.E. Dr. Musalia Mudavadi, E.G.H was sworn in as the first Prime Cabinet Secretary in Kenyan history on 27th October 2022.
The strategic scope of the OPCS has evolved through successive executive frameworks to meet the changing administrative needs.
Executive Order No. 1 of January 2023 changed the office with imbedding a public service culture focused on maximizing synergy avoiding policy friction and promoting transparency.
Executive Order No. 2 of 2023 expanded the docket by naming the Prime Cabinet Secretary as the head of Kenya’s foreign service.
Executive order No. 1 of 2025 reaffirmed the office as the central hub for national governance operations.
The OPCS serves as the corner stone for the coordination, supervision, and monitoring of national government operations under the principles of the 'Whole-of-Government (WoG)' and 'Open-Government (OG)' approaches in Government work places and in delivery of public services.
Whole-of-Government (WoG)
The WoG approach is an internal public service culture whose qualifiers of 'inter-sectoral', 'multi-sectoral' and 'cross-sectoral' are used interchangeably to form a work ethic approach 'in which public service agencies work across portfolio boundaries' to develop integrated policies and programmes towards the achievement of shared, complementary and interdependent goals by:
- Enhancing multisectoral collaboration
- Ensuring principles of universal access, equity, accountability, participation and intersectoral action in all areas of policy formulation and implementation
- Creating synergies
- Considering implications of decisions
- Avoiding harmful policy impacts
Open-Government (OG)
The OG is a broader approach that enhances transparency by moving beyond public authorities decision-making and engaging non-state actors. This translates to involving "all relevant stakeholders: Including individuals, families and communities, intergovernmental organizations, religious institutions, civil society, academia, the media, voluntary associations and the private sector and industry." Here, transparency is given a high value to counter maleficence such as corruption.
The Common Rationale
The common rationale for these approaches is twofold: First, recognition that Government does not exist for its own sake and is highly dependent on actors beyond itself. Second, to address the multidimensional and transdisciplinary challenges inherent in the running of Government, there is the need to overcome departmentalism and siloed work, to increase policy coherence and effectiveness.