How often do you wash your towel? Some people wash once a week, while some, once a year. The towel is a fertile breeding ground for millions of microbes, especially those found on human skin and on the gut. No wonder the towel is one of the objects that facilitate fecal-oral contamination (literally connecting the two ends of the gut). Worse still, most people keep towels in the bathroom (near the toilet). Every flush of the toilet sends mist with millions of microbes, ranging from H.pylori, salmonella and other deadly bacteria and viruses. When you wash your hands ready for a meal, and dry them with your body towel, there's high chance you are directly ingesting your fecal matter, or, if in a shared lavatory, someone else's faeces. Unless cleaned well, viruses such as human papillomavirus (causes warts, anal cancer and cervical cancer) can be transmitted when towels are shared with infected individuals. So, what to do? 1. Launder towels once a week. 2. Use hot water and det...
Following a directive issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta through Executive Order No.2 of 2018 requiring all public entities comprising of ministries, departments, counties and state corporations to publish all awarded contracts starting today, 1st July 2018, the Head of the Public Service Mr. Joseph Kinyua has issued comprehensive guidelines to enable compliance.
As per the executive order, all public entities are expected to publish full details of all contracts awarded by them through a variety of means, including their websites, the e-Citizen portal, the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority platforms, public notice boards and any other official government publications.
The public entities are required to publish the report of the awarded contracts not later than the 15th day of the subsequent month without fail.
Where the 15th day of the subsequent month falls on a weekend or public holiday, the agencies are required to publish the report on or before the day immediately before the weekend or public holiday in strict compliance with the 15 days rule as set out in the executive order.
The guidelines aim to foster coherence and uniformity in the reporting style and framework as well as bring to an end the opacity and relative secrecy that typified public procurement in the past.
In line with Article 35 of the Constitution regarding Access to Information, Kenyans will now be able to easily access and interrogate information regarding specific details of public procurement including price and suppliers of goods and services.
Further, the directive seeks to entrench transparency and accountability which are core considerations in President Kenyatta’s fight against corruption, inefficiency and over-pricing of goods and services in public sector procurement.
Accordingly, Kenyans are encouraged to take advantage of the newly introduced framework that is characterised by the highest level of public scrutiny and accountability when doing business with public entities.
Manoah Esipisu, MBS.
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