Report shows OP and PM offices under grip of tribe

By STEVE MKAWALE

Audit of Civil Service jobs exposes how entrenched tribalism is; with statistics showing the President and the Prime Minister have surrounded themselves with their tribesmen.

President Kibaki’s office is teeming with Kikuyu (the President’s tribe), making up 361 of 373 employees at the Office of the President.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga also comes out with the majority of the staff in his office belong to his Luo tribe, even though not in the scale of the Kikuyu dominance of the OP.

Out of 302 staff at the PM’s office, 21.85 per cent are Luos, but the Kikuyu who are 21.19 per cent in the same office almost equal their number.

The audit conducted by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) reveals the five big ethnic groups occupy more than 70 per cent of Government jobs.

The audit report released by the NCIC chairman, Mzalendo Kibunjia, however, fell short of the expectation it would show the people who actually run ministries and parastatals.

There was expectation the audit would show how people from specific ethnic groups dominate particular sectors of the public service.

The NCIC concentrated on the general distribution of ethnic groups in the Civil Service, but overlooked senior positions in Government.

The report released on Wednesday shows that the Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luhya, Kamba and Luo occupy 70 per cent of Government jobs.

The report shows that the Kikuyu are the majority in all ministries and departments except in the PM’s office, the police, and the Prisons Service.

The Kikuyu occupy 22.3 per cent of 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 Kikuyu and Kalenjin combined occupy 39 per cent of the jobs. The Kikuyu represent 17.7 per cent of the country’s population while the Kalenjin are 16.7.

Direct relationship

The commission noted that the high proportion of the Kikuyu and Kalenjin in Government employment suggest a direct relationship with the tenure of the presidency.

"The two communities have had one of their own as President for over 20 years," stated the report.

The audit also revealed that several ministries defy the law that requires equitable distribution of jobs, according to the ethnic diversity.

Kibunja noted that even in relatively new ministries, the pattern of ethnic patronage was still evident.

The Luhya, Kamba, and Luo follow the two in that order, with the largest number of people in public employment.

The report dubbed the First Ethnic Audit of Kenya Civil Service further stated that the staff composition in more than ten Government departments defies the law.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission Act of 2008 that established the commission, requires that members of a single community should not occupy more than a third of employment position in an office.

The ministries and departments with more than a third of staff from a single community, include State House, the ministries of Transport, Public Works, Tourism, and Local Government. Others are Higher Education and Nairobi Metropolitan.

The report that is likely to generate public debate, further states that 22 departments and ministries have more than 25 per cent of their staff from one tribe.

When releasing the report, the first of its kind since independence 47 years ago, Kibunja said the results of the study were a clear and honest picture of where the country stands.

"The verdict is that Kenya has a crisis of exclusion," said the chairman, who was accompanied by six of its members.

The commission’s report further states that over 20 communities hold less than one per cent of the jobs in the Civil Service.

Skewed recruitment

"Seven of these communities each has less than 100 of their members working in the Civil Service," he said.

Kibunjia said the big tribes’ domination of jobs cuts across high-ranking and low-ranking cadres.

"The skewed recruitment into the Civil Service cuts across job groups, including those that do not require higher qualifications," he observed.

Kibunja noted that in the lowest job groups – ABCD – the same seven major communities account for over 80 per cent of State jobs.

"The number of those hired from each community is at variance with their size of population," said the chairman in his report.

Kibunja noted that six of the communities’ share of Civil Service jobs exceeded their population size by between one and four per cent.

"Another five communities are under-represented by a similar margin," he noted. Kibunjia said the statistics point to a crisis of ethnic exclusion.

"The bulk of Civil Service jobs are in the office of the President, thus underlining the overweening influence this office has enjoyed in the past and the patronage there," he noted.

Kibunja blamed the skewed employment in the Civil Service on the personality-based leadership system of governance.

He said the composition of the Civil Service was important not only because it is the face of the Government, Kibunja said it speaks volumes on exclusion.

He also said salaries from the jobs were initial bases for wealth accumulation.

In the Ministry of Transport out of the 241 employees, 147 are from one community.

In the Higher Education Ministry out of the 386 staff, 33.70 per cent come from a single community, while in the Ministry of Local Government 34 per cent of 272 employees are from one community.

Out of the 1, 903 people employed at the Ministry of Public Works, 34.63 per cent are from one community.

Another nine ministries and departments are said to be close to breaching the law. They have 30 per cent of their staff from one community.

The ministries are that of Co-operative Development, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, Finance, Labour, and Human Resource Development, Livestock, Roads, Water and Irrigation and the State Law Office.