The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) has been listed among best performing institutions in Kenya. The Public Service Commission (PSC) Evaluation Report on the Status of Compliance of the Public Service for the Financial Year 2021/2022 ranks the Council as a ‘high achiever’ in the State Corporations and semi-autonomous agencies (SAGAs) category.
PSC Chairperson Ambassador Anthony Muchiri said in his remarks that the report presents an evaluation of the measures taken, progress realised and challenges faced in implementation of national values and principles of governance and the values and principles of public service.
“The report covers all public institutions within the purview of the Commission and presents findings from a survey of 477 public institutions out of 525, representing 91% response rate”, he said.
He mentioned that the evaluation focused on the extent to which public institutions mainstreamed the national values and principles of governance and the values and principles of public service that were grouped in seven thematic areas namely: service delivery improvement, high standards of professional ethics, good governance, transparency and accountability, performance management, equitable allocation of opportunities and resources, public participation in policy-making and efficiency, effectiveness and economical use of resources and sustainable development.
“The overall compliance level improved by 1.7% to 41.7% from the previous financial year, meaning that the public service has progressively improved on mainstreaming of values and principles in service delivery”, said Mr Muchiri.
He added that the Commission will continue to support and facilitate awareness and understanding to enable institutions to comply with the provision on values and principles.
“The Commission will monitor the implementation of the recommendations to improve on the compliance levels”, noted Ambassador Muchiri.
MCK CEO David Omwoyo has commended the former Council Board, Management and staff for the sterling performance in line with the 18th cycle of Performance Contracting for 2021/2022.
“Besides our teams I thank every entity who worked with us in the last financial year, be they State agencies, corporates, media houses, professional societies and unions, academia and development partners. We treasure your support and our unity of purpose is what we need to make the Kenyan media an unequaled success story”, he said.
The Media Council of Kenya is an independent national institution established by the Media Council Act, No. 20 of 2013 for purposes of setting of media standards and ensuring compliance with those standards as set out in Article 34(5) of the Constitution and for connected purposes.
The Council is guided by the vision of a society where media freedom is respected, upheld, protected and maintained and where journalists, media practitioners and media houses are professional, responsible and adhere to media ethics. It runs on a co-regulation model where it receives modest funding from the Government while at the same time it levies media houses and individual journalists. The funds are used in running the several activities the MCK undertakes.
Some of the Council’s premier activities include the Annual Survey of the performance of Kenya’s media, the Annual Media Summit and the Annual Journalism Excellence Awards. The Council also runs the industrial placement programme for final year media and communications students as well as story writing grant and mentorship programme besides conducting various safety and protection programmes for journalists in distress occasioned by their work.