Nandi county violated the law in hiring 1,555 employees because it failed to give minority communities 30 per cent of the jobs.
The ethnic bias was revealed by the Auditor General's 2017-18 report.
Auditor General Edward Ouko said as of June 30 last year, the county executive had 4,007 employees on its payroll. Of this number, 1,555 had been hired within the year under review, with more than 98 per cent of them from the dominant community.
Only 44 workers were from minority communities.
Ouko said the hiring breached the County Governments Act of 2012.
“The County executive is, therefore, in breach of the law on staff establishment as a means of promoting national unity,” the report said.
Meanwhile, Governor Stephen Sang and Senator Samson Cherargei have been embroiled in a feud over alleged graft. Cherargei accused the county of hiring "many slay queens”. But Sang dismissed the allegation and accused Cherargei of propagating rumours and propaganda.
The audit report also queried the use of Sh96.7 million on the stalled governor’s office block. It was initiated during the term of former Governor Cleophas Lagat.
Ouko says a review of the project revealed that it had stalled despite the contractor having been paid most of the money. This included a variation cost of the contract price by an extra Sh21 million on top of the original Sh103 million.
“The objective of the project has not been achieved and the county government has obtained no value for money,” Ouko said.
Sang and Cherargei also differed on the project after the senator claimed the county administration wanted it condemned so a new one is initiated to "create another avenue for swindling public funds."
Cherargei praised the Auditor General for flagging financial irregularities. He urged the Senate Education committee to probe the alleged misuse of bursary funds.
