BY SAMIE WAIKORI

The Leader of the Official Opposition and member of the Bills and Legislative Committee (BLC), Matthew Wale has raised the importance of dressing code especially for spouses of foreign service officers.

Wale says there needs to be training especially for the country’s foreign service officers or ambassadors, because “the way we dress could send different messages to people and most importantly our partners”.

Considering the importance of the matter, Wale asked the Ministry of Public Service, during the hearing of the Public Service Bill 2025 last week, to put in place training for spouses of the country’s ambassadors.

“We don’t know how to dress. I mean, to meet different protocols. And this basic kind of training is required for etiquette for different cultures.

“Different cultures handle protocols in a nuanced way. Sometimes our partners, our would-be partners, tell us where we’re at just by the way we dress.

“The way we handle the etiquette already betrays our lack of experience or our lack of competence in certain issues.

“So, these very basic trainings are needed especially for our ambassadors and their spouses,” he said.

The team from the Ministry of Public Service acknowledged the concern and assured to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade to look at a training for this important area.

They also assured to try and help IPAM in terms of this area, as they are the training institution responsible for training of public officers.

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