The Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities dominate the Civil Service, according to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission. The two communities together control 40 percent of the Civil Service, according to an audit conducted by the commission which sought to establish the compliance of government ministries to the Cohesion Act.
The Act enacted in 2008 requires that no government department or ministry should have more than 33 per cent of its staff from one ethnic community.
The NCIC chair Mzalendo Kibunjia attributed the skewed dominance by the Kikuyu/Kalenjin to political patronage they have enjoyed due to the longevity of the Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki administrations. “Their number in the civil service suggests a direct relationship with the tenure of the presidency, in that both had a member as President for over 20 years,” states the report.“This study indicts the personality-based leadership in Kenya and signals the need to strengthen institutions that check the creeping effects of political patronage,” Kibunjia said.
Other reasons cited for the imbalance include disparities in access to education, proximity to the location of government offices as well as willingness to seek employment in the Civil Service.”Be that as it may, it is remarkable that a service once dominated by Europeans and Asians has so dramatically changed its composition over 40 years. The merging patterns of staffing suggest that power and leadership influenced the ethnic composition of the public service,” the report says.
Kibunjia says he will be meeting with President Kibaki and the Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura next week to present the commission’s recommendations on how to address the imbalance.
According to the audit, seven communities have an ethnic representation above five per cent in the civil service while the rest are below this percentage. Those dominating the civil service are the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kalenjin, Luo, Kamba, Kisii and Meru.
Five of these communities take nearly 70 per cent of the civil service employment.”Although they are the most populous, their numbers in the civil service are at variance with their population size. The seven have a combined population share of 76.7 percent against a civil service presence of 81.7 per cent, a significant five percentage point,” the survey explains.
The Ethnic Audit of Kenya Civil Service report says the Kikuyu and Kalenjin have a disproportionate share of the posts compared to their population.“The Kikuyu constitute the largest single dominant ethnic group in all ministries and departments, except prisons, police and office of the Prime Minister. The Kalenjin are the second largest group in the civil service; they are the most dominant group in the prisons and the police service. These two groups alone make up 40% of the entire civil service.” The office of the Prime Minister is dominated by Luo at 21.85% followed by Kikuyu at 21.9%.
Some communities’ presence cannot be felt in the public sector with only 20 of the listed 40 communities statistically visible in the civil service. Some 23 communities have less than 1% representation in the civil service with others completely out of the picture. Those left out include the Teso, Samburu, Pokomo, Kuria, Mbeere, Gabra, Bajun, Basuba, Taveta, Rendile, Elmolo, Dorobo.
Among state departments and ministries, State House leads in the imbalance with one community, Kikuyu, holding 373 positions which represent 45.31%.
Releasing the report, Kibunjia warned leaders against using the data and information to settle political scores. “It is a sensitive matter but we want Kenyans to take it in a positive manner while remembering where ethnicity took us to in 2007,” he cautioned.
Among the recommendations the commission is expected to propose is for the government to reshuffle the civil service so that it complies with the law.
He said the commission will also recommend to Parliament to amend the Act so that the current 33 per cent rule is revised downwards.“We will propose that the requirement of the ethnic make up of any ministry or government department be reduced from the current 33 per cent to a figure of between 15 – 20 per cent to ensure equity in allocation opportunities in civil service,” Kibunjia said.
The commission will also propose that the government consider establishing an affirmative action policy in its hiring schemes to bring some ethnic balance in public service.”Dominance in the civil service leads not only to marginalisation but also skewed development and wealth creation among communities,” said Kibunjia who likened the skewed allocation of jobs to an “informal apartheid system” that can perpetuate the state of inequality.
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