MPs accuse Ouko of hiring his tribesmen

Deputy Auditor General in charge of Cooperate Services Joyce Mbaabu in Parliament yesterday. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Legislators yesterday took Auditor-General Edward Ouko to task for 'flooding' his office with members of his Luo community.

The National and Equal Opportunity Committee told Mr Ouko to explain why over 35 per cent of all positions in his office were occupied by members of his ethnic community.

A report submitted by Deputy Auditor-General Director in charge of Co-operate Services Joyce Mbaabu showed that the auditor’s office has hired 325 members from the Luo community, translating to 35.5 per cent of the 916 workers.

These were followed by Kikuyu community (156 members) and the Kisii community (91 members).

“It is very clear that your office is worse than any other State agency we have met," said nominated MP Maina Kamanda who chairs the committee.

"You have even done worse than before. If you can stay there for 20 years, then the whole institution will be made up of one community.”

CEO’s tribe

Commenting on the same issue, Mohamed Garane (Lagdera) said: “We must stop this idea of getting a majority of employees from the CEO’s tribe. It is unfortunate that the office of the Auditor-General is having these discrepancies.”

Ms Mbaabu, who represented the Auditor-General, explained that most of the hiring was done after the promulgation of the Constitution, which stresses diversity and regional balance in Government offices.

Prior to the passage of the new law, the report showed, members of the Kikuyu tribe dominated positions at the State agency.

Of the total 834 staff population at the time, the Kikuyu community occupied 353 positions, translating to 42 per cent of the work force.

The Luo occupied only 13.79 per cent of the positions.

After 2010, this dramatically changed with the Luo staff population overtaking that of the Kikuyu.

At the time, the Luhya out-muscled the Kisii, taking position three with 83 members, while workers from the Kisii community dropped to 75.

The committee chair told Ouko to take measures to reverse the trend, saying that it had painted the State agency in a bad light.

The committee has been probing diversity of staff in various state agencies and is set to release its report at the end of the exercise.