The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) is on the spot over the recent employment of staff from five dominant ethnic communities, which already account for 64 percent of its total workforce at the exclusion of 14 others.
The Senate National Cohesion, Equal Opportunity, and Regional Integration Committee put KNBS Director-General Macdonald Obudho to task to explain why it employed new staff from the Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kamba and Kalenjin communities when they already hold 304 slots of the 506 employees.
Appearing before the committee to provide information on the representation of Kenya’s diversity in staff composition, Dr Obudho said that out of the 506 staff, Kikuyu account for 102, Luo (84), Luhya (60), Kamba (58) and Kalenjin (50), bringing the total to 304.
The Kenyan Somali, Embu, Meru, and Borana make the list of top 10 with 31, 13, 10 and nine employees, respectively.
Other tribes employed at the KNBS are Mijikenda (eight), Gabra (five), Kuria (four), Pokot (three), Turkana (three) while Bajuni, Suba, Burji, Pokomo, Samburu, Taita, and Taveta each have two employees each at KNBS.
The Boni-Sanye, El Molo, Kenyan Arabs, Mbeere, Ilchamus/Njemps, Nubi, Rendile, and the Sakuye each have one slot at the KNBS employment.
Dr Obudho told senators that KNBS has employed 31 out of the 45 Kenyan ethnic communities leaving out 14 tribes. He did not provide the list of the 14 ethnic communities that have no slots at the bureau.
The committee chaired by Marsabit Senator Mohamed Chute demanded to know why the new 31 slots were not distributed among 14 ethnic communities that have no single representation in the KNBS employment.
Documents tabled by Dr Obudho show that out of the 31 new employees, two are from the Kikuyu community, Luo, Luhya, Kamba each have three while and Kalenjin has two.
“Why didn’t you spread the 31 new slots to the 14 ethnic communities which have no employment at the KNBS?" Mr Chute asked. “Why are you increasing the number of staff from the ethnic communities which already account for 64 percent of the current total employment? This is against the one-third ethnic representation requirement in the Constitution.”
Article 232 of the Constitution and Section 7 of the National Cohesion and Integration Act (NCI), 2008, requires that all public establishments seek to represent the diversity of the people of Kenya in employment of staff and that no public establishment shall have more than one third of its establishment from the same ethnic community.
Mr Chute directed Dr Obudho to furnish the committee with documentation, including the number of applicants, those who made it to the long and short lists and their respective scores for the committee to scrutinise.
The committee established that the bureau also has six employees who have surpassed the retirement age of 60 with the youngest employee at the State agency being a 22-year-old.
Nominated Senator Beth Syengo demanded to know why the KNBS had left the rest of the 40 communities to fight for 34 percent of the employment given that five communities had secured 64 percent of the 506 posts.
“If you take first four communities of Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kamba and Kalenjin, they already account for 58 percent of total employment. Why do you leave the rest of the 31 ethnicities to struggle for 42 percent of the slots? This is very unfair,” Ms Syengo, the ODM nominated senator said.
She also demanded to know why the KNBS had split the Kalenjin community by categorising Pokot, with three staff at KNBS as a stand-alone ethnic community.
“He has conveniently separated Kalenjin by removing Pokot and Ilchamus/Njemps from the ethnic cluster to lower the percentage of representation of the Kalenjin ethnic community at KNBS employment,” she said.
Dr Obudho defended the employment composition saying it has endeavoured to use the population census for all tribes in Kenya. “We are trying to bring on board other communities as we continue to recruit new staff,” Dr Obudho said.
“It is all about the application for the slots. Some ethnic communities do not apply but we are trying to undertake affirmative action to achieve ethnic representation.”
