CABINET MEDIA BRIEF JULY 4TH 2013 Cabinet today met at State House, Nairobi under the chairmanship

of His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta where the following issues were discussed: (i) PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIONAL POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION ACT NO. 30 OF 2011

These amendments seek to amend the Act to clearly streamline and demarcate the roles of the Inspector General and the National Police Commission. Once amended the Commission will be confined to the roles and functions assigned by the Constitution. (ii) RATIONALISATION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE

Cabinet approved a plan to restructure and reorganize the Public Service in line with the changes introduced by the constitution where Ministries were reduced to 18. In addition some functions performed at the National Government level have been transferred to the counties under the devolved Government system. Under the programme staff in Ministries and Departments will be redeployed. (iii) LAPTOP PROJECT FOR STANDARD ONE CLASS Cabinet also approved the implementation strategy for ICT integration in schools presented by the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Technology. Under the strategy each pupil entering Standard One in January, 2014 will be provided with a laptop computer. The programme will also see construction of storage facilities for computers in all schools, while the Ministry of Education will immediately embark on training teachers who will be responsible for teaching using the computers. In addition the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) will develop digital content in readiness for the roll out of the programme in January, 2014. The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum has in the meantime embarked on connection of electricity to schools to ensure electricity is available for the computer programme. In cases where electricity is not available solar energy/panel installation programmes will be undertaken, while the cost of the project was initially expected to cost Kenya Shillings 15Billion in the first phase, the cost of the Laptops has now come down to USD 100 (Kshs.8,500) per computer. The savings realized will go towards capacity building in schools, training of teachers and digital content development. PPS JULY 4, 2013