Ministers move to secure plum State jobs for their allies
Energy PS Patrick Nyoike (left) with Kenya Power MD Joseph Njoroge at a past event. Mr Njoroge’s contract has been renewed six months before expiry of the current one. Photo/File
What you need to know:
In the past two weeks alone, the President and his ministers have made more than 110 executive and board appointments for State agencies.
The appointments are being seen as an attempt to keep their cronies in plum jobs ahead of their exit next month.
Charles Nyachae, the chairman of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), termed the appointments reversible.
The Kibaki government has stepped up its appointment of senior public officials in controversial circumstances ahead of next week’s elections.
The appointments effectively block the next administration from influencing the hiring of individuals into plum parastatal jobs in the early days of coming to power.
In the past two weeks alone, the President and his ministers have made more than 110 executive and board appointments for State agencies.
The appointments are being seen as an attempt to keep their cronies in plum jobs ahead of their exit next month — in some cases contrary to established hiring procedures.
Top on the list of the controversial appointments is the renewal of the contracts of Kenya Power managing director Joseph Njoroge and his Kenya Ports Authority counterpart, Gichiri Ndua, six months before expiry of their current terms.
The appointments are in breach of the laid down procedure for the hiring of parastatal chiefs that requires respective boards to start the process six months to the end of a serving executive’s term.
The procedure, established in a circular by former head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, also requires a serving executive to write to the board expressing interest in re-appointment six months ahead of his or her term’s expiry.
The board is then required to assess the executive’s performance and inform the appointing authority (the line minister) of its decision within three months to expiry of the serving executive’s term.
A positive decision means a serving executive remains in office pending re-appointment but a negative one culminates in being sent on a terminal leave three months to the expiry of the contract. This paves the way for the board to begin the search for a successor.
It is the process that Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi and his Transport counterpart, Amos Kimunya, have violated with the renewal of Mr Njoroge and Mr Gichiri’s contracts.
The move also pre-empts the impending removal of parastatals from direct control of politicians. The new Constitution bars Members of Parliament from serving as ministers.
Charles Nyachae, the chairman of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), termed the appointments reversible.
“Extension of parastatal executives’ contracts before expiry of current terms can be challenged in court and nullified,” said Mr Nyachae.
President Kibaki has himself appointed more than 13 people to plum parastatal positions in the past two weeks. Mr Kibaki’s latest appointments were contained in last Friday’s edition of the Kenya Gazette.
The President picked Anne Wangari and Simiyu Wasike to chair the boards of Kenya Investment Authority and Nzoia Sugar Company respectively for the next three years.
Higher Education minister Margaret Kamar made 50 appointments to the councils of public universities in the past two weeks. Appointments to boards of parastatals have ranged between 30 and 40 a month in recent years.
The appointments frenzy has drawn sharp criticism from pressure groups and analysts warning that they could weaken accountability and performance structures.
“It merely amounts to a rush by politicians to reward their cronies before exit,” said Joseph Kieyah, an analyst at the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra).
“These are most likely cases of cronyism that can only work against merit-based hiring of people to manage the State firms.”
In the new dispensation after the elections, ministers will be replaced by cabinet secretaries to be appointed from outside Parliament. Cabinet members will be nominated by the President with the approval of the National Assembly, a move that is expected to enhance the level of scrutiny of public appointments.
The Constitution also sets out a leaner executive structure by providing for a Cabinet of not more than 22 Cabinet secretaries, laying the ground for a merger of several ministries.
The new law also requires gender, ethnic, and regional balance in all State agencies.
Institutions that have witnessed a flurry of appointments to their boards include the National Hospital Insurance Fund, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Moi and Egerton universities.
Others are the Communications Commission of Kenya, Kenya Film Commission, National Oil, Kenya Electricity Transmission Company, Konza City and Kenya Medical Training College.
Opposition to the appointments intensified last Friday with reports of Mr Murungi’s renewal of Mr Njoroge’s contract.
The minister is said to have written to Mr Njoroge, through board chairman Eliazar Ochola, offering the CEO a new three-year term effective from September 1, 2013.
“Following the Kenya Power and Lighting Board’s recommendation based on its rating of your performance as excellent, I have decided to have your contract renewed,” reads the letter signed by Mr Murungi.
“This contract supersedes all other agreements and/or arrangements hitherto entered into with you and the company,” the letter says.
The minister has given Mr Njoroge a deadline of Thursday February 28 to confirm his acceptance of the offer.
Mr Njoroge was first appointed to head Kenya Power in 2007 and will serve for a decade at the helm of the power distributor if he accepts the latest offer.
Kenya Power says Mr Njoroge had last month expressed his wish to serve another term to the board.
