The anti-corruption agency should take action against state agencies that have failed to ensure ethnic and regional balance, NCIC has said.
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission yesterday said it will invite the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to probe the hiring of employees.
NCIC officials Sella King’oro and Kyalo Mwangi appeared before the Senate Committee on Cohesion, Equal Opportunity and Regional Integration at Parliament Buildings.
They said that ethnic compositions in both the national and county governments were audited and recommendations made to address imbalances, but some state are yet to comply.
They called upon the anti-graft commission to crack the whip mainly in universities and parastatals whose workforce has one dominant ethnic group.
“EACC will be invited to deal with the institutions that have contravened the NCIC Act in line with the Leadership and Integrity Act ,”Kyalo told the committee chaired by Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua.
NCIC, in its 2016 report on Ethnic and Diversity Audit of Public Universities in Kenya, showed that that 66 per cent of the jobs in universities and constituent colleges are occupied by six dominant communities.
They are Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kisii, Luhya and Luo, which dominate both top and subordinate positions, leaving 44 per cent for the remaining ethnic groups.
The report had sampled 22 public universities and nine constituent colleges.The Public Service Commission’s 2014-15 evaluation report also indicated that the ethnic groups occupying the largest proportion of government jobs do not correspond with their proportions in the national population.
The Kikuyu community leads the list of the five most overrepresented ethnic groups, with 6.2 per cent, followed by Kalenjin at 3.5 per cent while the Luo came third with 2.2 per cent and the Kisii were fourth with 1.7 per cent.
The last time the NCIC carried out an ethnic audit in the national government was in 2013, while in the 47 counties, the commission did an audit in 2016. The 2016 report on ethnic diversity in counties had shown widespread ethnicity in employment.
The report shows Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Nandi employed almost 100 per cent of their workforce from the dominant ethnic group.
Only 13 counties had recruited 30 per cent of their workers from tribes outside their localities
The report found out that only 13 out of the 47 counties had recruited 30 per cent of their workers from ethnic communities based outside their localities, highlighting how devolution has quickly become the new frontier of tribalism.
Senators questioned the officials as to why the commission had not carried out a fresh audit on the two levels of government. The said the 2013 and 2016 reports were too old to be used to address what is ailing the governments.
"These reports are too old to be relied on. Tension and clashes being witnessed in counties are as a result of failure to equitably share these positions,” Bomet Senator Christopher Langat said.
King’oro defended the commission, saying they lack funds to carry out audits.
“We are under the Ministry of Interior and we share the little money given with other commissions and agencies. We have not been receiving sufficient funds to do the audit. It is purely an issue of funding,” King’oro told the committee.
(Edited by P.Wanambisi)
