Four logistics, shipping agencies fail NCIC ethnic diversity test
NCIC chair Francis ole Kaparo. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA
Four parastatals in the shipping and logistics sector, including the Kenya Ports Authority, have failed the ethnic diversity test, making their operations run afoul of a law that stipulates no single community should control more than a third of a public company.
Kenya Roads Board, Kenya Ferry Services, and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra) are the other State-owned firms, each dominated by members from a single ethnicity, according to a fresh study by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission.
At KPA, the second-biggest public employer with 6,543 members of staff, the Mijikenda control 41.6 per cent of the total workforce.
Francis ole Kaparo, chairman at the cohesion agency, said the four firms “contravene Section 7(2) of the NCIC Act because their largest number of employees form more than the provided threshold of 33.3 per cent.
The Kaparo-led agency also established that the top management of the parastatals are also skewed in favour of certain communities.
Other transport and logistics-related public firms were found compliant in terms of ethnic inclusion, including Kenya National Highway Authority, Kenya Railways, Kenya Maritime Authority, Kenya Airports Authority, and Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.
Firms that embrace diversity – ethnic, gender – at the workplace are likely to generate higher returns, gain higher market share, and gain a competitive edge in accessing new markets; according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The rural roads agency has 246 employees from the Kikuyu community out of the total 668 workers, translating to 36.8 per cent.
Kenya Ferry Services has 290 employees of which more than half or 151 workers are from the Mijikenda community, reads the cohesion report.
At the Kenya Roads Board, which collects the road maintenance levy fund charged at Sh18 per litre, the Kikuyu make up the highest number of employees comprising of 37 per cent of the entire staff.
The findings are part of an annual audit carried out by the agency to measure the ethnic diversityof all State corporations, agencies and independent offices, national as well as county government civil service.
“All public establishments shall seek to represent the diversity of the people of Kenya in the employment of staff. No public establishment shall have more than one third of its staff from the same ethnic community”, reads Section 7 of the NCIC Act (2008).
KPA’s top management is also skewed in favour of the Mijikenda community, who occupy a quarter of the 71 mid-level positions, says the NCIC.
The thread is similar at the ferry agency where Mijikenda take up half or three of the six senior level managers, followed by two from Meru community and one member from Luo tribe.
Mr Kaparo further questioned the “very huge gap between the first two communities” at Kenya Roads Board where Kikuyus take up five of the 12 senior management spots followed by two from the Kisii community.
The mid-level C-suite at Kerra’s– mandated to oversee construction and maintenance of rural roads - is dominated by the Kikuyu which comprises 42.9 per cent followed by 10 Luhya managers out of the total 70 executives.
