One tribe hogs constitutional commissions jobs in Kenya, says study

One ethnic community dominates employment in a majority of the 15 independent commissions, a new study by a State body reveals.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) shows the Kikuyu community forms 22.2 per cent of the employees in the constitutional bodies.

The Judicial Service Commission has also been fingered for flouting NCI Act 2008, which states that no one community should have more than 33.3 per cent employees from one community.

“The Judicial Service Commission flouted section 7(2) of the NCI Act (2008) by employing 39 per cent of its employees from one ethnic community, the Kikuyu,” the report, which has not been formally released shows.

It adds: “The Kikuyu community seems to dominate the employee composition of all commissions save for the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) at 18 per cent and the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) at 25 per cent that are predominantly Luo.”

The study, dubbed “Ethnic and Diversity Audit of Commissions in the Country,” was carried out in July as one of the steps by NCIC to ensure compliance with the legislation on diversity.

STAFF DIVERSITY

The study found that only 19.59 per cent of all commission positions are occupied by staff of minority origin.

“Employment within the commissions has included minority ethnic communities such as the Maasai, Njemps, Rendille, Orma and the Ogiek to mention but a few,” reads the report in part.

The study used the richness of the population of employees to establish its diversity.

In that regard, the Parliamentary Service Commission has 29 ethnic communities among its staff, being the highest among all commissions.

However, using the same mean to establish diversity evenness, the Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) turned out to be the most diverse commission with a mean of 2.4, followed by the Judicial Service Commission at 2.9 and the National Cohesion and Integration Commission at 3.0.

On staff diversity, the study established that the workforce of commissions, which have regional presence seems to be more diverse.

“As such, commissions that have decentralised offices are likely to have more ethnic groups than those that have only one office in Nairobi,” says the report.

Some of these include the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

The study further noted that the composition of the members of the Board of Commissions in Kenya includes 20 ethnic groups ranging from the majority Kikuyu, Luo and Luhya to the minority Turkana, Gabbra, Kuria and Njemps among others.