How ethnic groups have colonised the Civil Service

Kenya’s six most populous ethnic groups have colonised the public service to the near exclusion of the remaining 42, a new report on the ethnic composition of government shows.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) says in a newly-published report that the six -- Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luo, Luhya, Kamba and Kisii -- occupy 82.6 per cent of government leaving the remaining 42 tribes to share the 17 per cent of total public jobs.

PSC says the survey considered Kenya to be having 48 tribes.

The report shows that Kikuyus who are Kenya’s most populous group control 33,783 of government jobs representing 23.4 per cent of the total, while the Kalenjins, the third most populous have 23,649 or 16.3 per cent. The Luo, the third largest group have 18,383 or 12.7 per cent, the Luhyas, the second most populous control 18,106 (12.5 per cent), Kamba 14,707 (10.2 per cent) and Kisii 10,786 (7.5 per cent).

The report finds that 11 ethnic groups are overrepresented in the government as currently constituted, 14 are fairly represented while 23 are underrepresented.

“When ethnic representation in the service is examined against the corresponding national population proportion, the evaluation findings show that 11 ethnic groups are over-represented, 14 are fairly and proportionately represented while 23 ethnic groups are underrepresented,” the PSC says.

Of the total 147,275 jobs evaluated by PSC, the six tribes hold 119,413 slots.

The commission indicates that it evaluated 48 ethnic groups meaning that the other 42 tribes share the remaining 27,000 jobs.

The report lists the top five over-represented tribes as Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luo, Kisii and Taita. This means hiring more civil servants from these communities only worsens the situation.

The 2009 census shows that Kikuyus account for 17.2 per cent of Kenya’s population making their 23.4 per cent representation in the civil service a 6.2 per cent overepresentation.

“The proportion of over-representation for all the five ethnic groups increased in the last one year rather than narrow as expected,” the report says adding that the proportion of increment benefitted the Luo most followed by the Kalenjin.”

Increased overrepresentation of these tribes in the public service puts to question the government’s commitment to correcting the skewed hiring and inclusion of smaller tribes the public service as demanded by the Constitution.

READ: President’s tribe dominates State House staff

The PSC says that there has been no deliberate effort to remedy the flawed hiring practice that benefits large tribes and has existed for decades.
“Contrary to expectations that remedial actions would be taken to lower the proportional representation advantage, the evidence is that MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) did very little to ameliorate the situation,” the report adds.

It lists the most underrepresented tribes as the Somali (5.2), Mijikenda (3.2 per cent), Gureeh (1.7 per cent), Turkana (1.6 per cent), Ogaden (1.5 per cent) and Suba (1.4 per cent).

The PSC this month released a diversity policy for MDAs that is expected to tackle the problem of over-representation by setting hiring quotas for ethnic groups and other disadvantaged classes such as persons living with disability.

The strategies in the policy document include “assigning recruitment or promotion quotas over specified timelines to MDAs where certain ethnic groups are under-represented to bring them at par with others.”

This essentially means that an agency or ministry must commit to a cap on the number of people it can hire from certain tribes.

The policy document is a follow up to a law passed earlier this year seeking ethnic balance in the public service to make it reflect the face of Kenya.

The Public Service (Values and Principles) Act, 2015 that took effect on June 4 seeks to balance the share of public jobs in favour of the smaller communities even at the expense of merit.

READ: Big tribes lose out in State jobs under new law

The law says that public service may appoint or promote public officers without undue reliance on fair competition or merit if an ethnic group is disproportionately represented in the public service or in a public institution.

Critics have argued that the restrictive hiring would be considered discriminative against some communities arguing that employment should be based on merit.

But the PSC in the new policy says that imposing restrictions should be considered as taking affirmative action, which is allowed by Constitution and the Employment Act.

“The Act clarifies that taking affirmative action measures consistent with promotion of equality or elimination of discrimination at the workplace is not discrimination.”

The policy lists most of Kenya’s tribes as marginalised adding that the special affirmative action demanded by the Constitution applies to them.
So far, tribal representation in the public service has and continues to benefit the large tribes especially the Kikuyu and Kalenjin.

Over-representation of the two tribes has often been linked to the country’s leadership since independence.

The current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and his father, the founding president Jomo Kenyatta are both Kikuyus. Mr Uhuru Kenyatta’s predecessor Mwai Kibaki is also a Kikuyu while Daniel Arap Moi, who ruled Kenya for 24 years, before Mr Kibaki is a Kalenjin.

The 2010 Constitution has urged for a fairer representation of Kenya’s diverse communities in the public service to correct the historical trend where the tribesmen of those in power are favoured during recruitment.

“The values and principles of public service include representation of Kenya’s diverse communities and affording adequate and equal opportunities for appointment, training and advancement, at all levels of the public service of the members of all ethnic groups,” the supreme law says.

A National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) survey conducted in 2011 indicated that over 50 per cent of Kenya’s ethnic groups are only marginally represented in the civil service – the country’s largest employer.

It said that some 23 communities are statistically invisible in the civil service.

Last year, the PSC noted that the progress towards a fairer representation in the public service may be linked to low literacy levels among some communities.

Introduction of free primary and subsidised secondary education is expected to see more students from the less represented tribes improve on their education and skills.

Besides tribe, the PSC’s policy is also aiming at increasing the number of women and persons with disabilities on the government’s payroll.

The Constitution requires that five per cent of the appointments made in the public sector should comprise persons with disabilities. Currently, this figure is below one per cent.