YOUR tribe will play a role in whether you get recruited or promoted in the public service, at least for a couple of years, as the government seeks to improve diversity.
However, talent, experience as well as discipline will continue to play a big role in who gets promoted in the public service.
According to a draft policy prepared by the Public Service Commission and published last week, there is need for affirmative action to ensure all Kenyan communities are represented in the Civil Service.
A report by the Public Service Commission dated December 2014 showed that the Civil Service is dominated by four communities, who take up more than half of all jobs.
The report showed that the Kikuyu community leads the pack, followed by the Kalenjin, Luhya and Kamba communities.
Together, they control 58 per cent of the workforce in government ministries, departments and agencies.
The report disclosed that members of the Kikuyu community had the highest number of employees, at 21,567, accounting for 22.9 per cent of the total workforce.
Members of the Kalenjin community, who hold 12,082 jobs in the surveyed departments, were also over-represented by 1.57 per cent. They form 12.8 per cent of the total government workforce.
The Luhya community was third, with 11,487 civil servants, or 12.2 per cent of the workforce.
Although it was one of the communities with the highest number of workers in government, it was, however, under-represented by 1.78 per cent, based on its members’ proportion of the national population, which stands at 14 per cent.
The Somali community, according to the report, has the highest deficit in the public service, at 4.4 per cent, followed by the Turkana at 2.2 per cent and the Luhya at 1.8 per cent.
There are 1,751 government workers of Somali origin in the Civil Service and 384 from the Turkana community.
The report said five communities are not represented at all, while three have less than 20 employees.
Those not represented are the Galla, with a population of 8,146, the Konso (1,758), the Galjeel (7,553), the Leysan (5,941) and Kenyan Americans (2,422).
The proposed policy is also seeking to help the country to increase the number of persons with disabilities in the public sector to 5 per cent, as required by the constitution.
“Every public service institution shall ensure fair and equitable representation of the diverse Kenyan ethnic communities and groups, including the minorities and marginalised groups and communities, proportionate to their national population size,” the draft policy states.
A report by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission on ethnicity in the public service in 2011 revealed that five communities — Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luhya, Kamba and Luo — commanded about 70 per cent of the total workforce.
The new document says that every public institution will take affirmative action measures “including assigning recruitment or promotion quotas over specified timelines.”
The policy lists marginalized groups based on population size as the Basuba, Walwana, Mbeere, Nubi, Tavetas, Tharakas, Ilchamus and Boran.