PSC to bar sacking of Kenyans from public office

Written By:Carl Gakii/Diana Okemwa,    Posted: Thu, Apr 14, 2011

PSC Chairman says he will table in parliament a report to bar the sacking of any Kenyan from public office based on the NCIC report.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on equal opportunities says no Kenyan will loose his or her job following an audit report by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) indicating that tribalism is rife in the public service.

The chairman of the committee Mohammed Affey says he will table in parliament a report to bar the sacking of any Kenyan from public office based on the NCIC report.

Affey says his committee is instead proposing the redeployment of public officers to ensure ethnic balance in public institutions.

Last week, Mzalendo Kibunjia-led commission released the report that indicated that two Kenyan communities occupy 40 percent of all public jobs.

According to the report, members of the Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luhya, Kamba and Luo communities occupy 70 per cent of all jobs in the civil service.

The Kikuyu lead the pack with 22.3 per cent of all civil service jobs, followed by the Kalenjin (16.7 per cent), Luhya (11.3 per cent), Kamba (9.7 per cent), Luo (9.0 per cent) and Kisii (6.8 per cent).

The so-called small communities are at the tail end of the survey, with over twenty having less than one per cent of their population in the civil service. In fact, seven of them have less than 100 members in the civil service each.

Among those communities who have less than one per cent of their populations in the civil service include the Teso (0.9 per cent), Samburu (0.6 per cent), Pokomo (0.6 per cent), Kuria (0.5 per cent), and Mbeere (0.5 per cent) among others.

The audit reveals that the Kikuyu constitute the largest single dominant ethnic group in all ministries and departments, with the exception of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Police and Prisons departments.

The PM's office is dominated by the Luo community, the audit reveals. The Kalenjin are the second largest group in the civil service and dominate the Prisons and the Police departments.

Lack of education was cited as undermining equitable hiring for the civil service across communities though in many instances even jobs that do not require higher qualifications have been taken up by the seven major communities as they account for 80 percent.

The  audit further reproved eight government departments of breaching the law as more than 33% of their staff are from one ethnic community.