Old Thinking Behind Hiring Imbalance, Says Minister

John Ngirachu

26 April 2011

Nairobi — Nairobi Metropolitan Development minister Njeru Githae has attributed the regional imbalance in hiring staff at his ministry on old thinking.

Mr Githae told Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee the Public Service Commission and the Office of the President are responsible for the imbalance, which resulted in there being 47 members of the Kikuyu community in the ministry’s 119 staff.

The minister spoke of his own experience, where a delay in the posting of staff to the ministry created in April 2008 was attributed to the lack of people from his Kikuyu community.

“You find staff are being sent to your office based on the fact that you may be more comfortable working with people from your area,” said Mr Githae.

“When I was appointed minister I was asked: ‘What staff do you want?’

I asked” ‘Why haven’t you posted a secretary?’ and they said” ‘We haven’t gotten one from your area. A secretary must come from your area.”

Of the 119 staff, 74 were posted from the central government, the minister said in his presentation, while 17 were recruited directly with the authority of the Public Service Commission.

The ministry has also had 18 technical officers recruited on its behalf by the Public Service Commission, but there still exist imbalances as per the report of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission.

Committee chairman Mohammed Affey said the PSC and the Head of the Civil Service Francis Muthaura would have to be summoned.

The ministry, however, scored well on gender balance, where 46 per cent of its staff are women.

Mr Githae said the imbalance would be corrected within the next three months but also recommended that the ministries assist the Public Service Commission by giving them the statistics needed.

“The Public Service Commission needs to be told to start working now. Ministries can help by giving these figures to the Public Service Commission because they may also not be in the know that there is a problem,” said Mr Githae.

The PSC recruits on behalf of ministries while the office of the Head of Civil Service under OP also posts and redeploys employees to the ministries.

According to Mr Githae, the postings from the central government have not been taking cognisance of the overall picture on regional balance.

“The PSC has been saying we want meritocracy and if we say we want meritocracy, gender balance and regional balance does not come in, and we have said we want to consider ethnic composition,” said Mr Githae.

He recommended that the government come up with a standard examination for those willing to join the civil service and that job advertisements be placed at the offices of chiefs, assistant chiefs, churches and mosques.

Mr Affey said he would soon present a motion in Parliament, whose endorsement would compel the government to announce vacancies at the grassroots level rather than only in the Kenya Gazette and the national newspapers.

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