How Two communities Dominate The Civil Service
What you need to know:
The Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities have the lion’s share of jobs in Ministries and State Departments.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) says out of the 75,031 slots, the Kikuyu have taken 16,691 or 22.25 per cent, while 10,565 or 14 per cent of the positions are held by Kalenjins.
Shockingly, nine communities are not represented in public employment at all.
A report tabled by PSC chairperson Anthony Muchiri shows that the Luhya community comes in third with 8,879 or 11.83 per cent of public jobs.
The Luo community controls 7,774 or 10.36 per cent of positions while the Kamba community holds 6,874 or 9.16 per cent of jobs. The Kisii community has 5,595 or 7.45 per cent of all positions while the Meru are represented by 4,046 or 5.39 per cent staff.
Kenyan-European and the Hawiyah ethnic community have one slot each or 0.0013 percent. The Dasnach-Shangil have five slots, Elmolo (12), Boni-Sanye (16), Sakuye (25), Murulle (34), Kenyan Asian (34), Dorobo (39), Njemps (45), Taveta (66), and Burji (68).
The findings are contained in a report on a statement sought by nominated Senator Godfrey Osotsi on equal representation on recruitment processes in State agencies.
Mr Muchiri said 36 ethnic communities were represented in line with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) 2019 census while nine ethnic were not represented.
“Aweer/Waata, Dahalo, Gosha, Konso, Makonde, Nubi, Walwana/Malakote, Wayyu and Kenyan Americans ethnic communities were not represented,” Mr Muchiri said.
“Apart from Dahalo and Kenyan Americans, these ethnic communities are nonetheless represented in the parastatal.”
The report shows that in the financial year 2022/23, the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities were grossly overrepresented in the public service.
The Kikuyu, with a national population of 8,148,668 or 17.13 per cent held 51,994 or 20.53 per cent of the total available jobs of 253,3186.
The Kalenjin with a national population of 6,358, 113 or 13.37 percent, took 43,983 or 17.3 per cent of the total slots available in the public service.
The report states that the Kalenjin were grossly over-represented. It indicates that the Kenyan-Somali, whose population was 2,780,502 or 5.85 per cent as per the 2019 census, were grossly under-represented, having held only 7,195 or 2.84 per cent of public jobs.
The Kenyan-Europeans, who number 1, 738, and the Dahalo, who were 575 as at the 2019 census, were not represented in employment in the public service.
“The PSC has initiated Phase II of the affirmative action programmes in all public institutions under its jurisdiction. The programme, which will run between 2023/24 to 2025/26 financial years will concretise the gains made on inclusivity processes during the 2018/19 to 2021/22 financial years,” Mr Muchiri said.
“Public institutions have consequently made the appropriate projections towards addressing respective diversity gaps regarding ethnic, gender and persons with disabilities (PWDs) proportionate representation.”
