Administrative training in Kenya

Abstract

The following is a study of the administrative training conducted in Kenya between 1961 and 1967. It is focussed on consideration of the proposition that, in developing nations, administrative training which is patterned on programmes used in the developed world will be largely and empty and irrelevant because unrelated to the way in which the governmental system actually works in such states. Crucial to this idea is the fact that in the developing world, unlike industrialized states such as the U.S.A. or Western European countries, bureaucrats are frequently in the position of having to make decisions concerning policy. This means that their personal values can affect their work to a considerable exten!V"this has led to the suggestion that training fo such bureaucra..ts must include the inculcation of the ideals best suited to a developmental regime. It is assumed that the present training imparted to bureaucrats in developing countries, being based on models used in the developed world, does not include such value training. In Kenya, administrative training was originally established as a means of faci! itating the process of Africanization of the upper levels of the Civil Service. It is centred at the Kenya Institute of Administration; its present function is chiefly to improve performance within the largely Africanized bureaucracy. The core of this thesis is an examination of the views of two groups of former trainees on the relevance or otherwise of a particular administrative training programme which has been conducted at the Institute over a number of years.