NAIROBI, Kenya June 6 – Talk of high-level tribalism and this is manifested in Nyamira County Assembly where all employees are Kisii, apart from one, just one.
This shocking revelation was unearthed by Nyamira County Assembly Speaker Enock Okello and Clerk Dan Orina when they appeared before the Public Accounts Committee.
They said the devolved unit has 223 employees in total, out of whom 222 (99.9 per cent) are members of the Gusii community.
When challenged to state why only Kisiis are employed in the county Assembly, the Clerk said they are the dominant community in the area and no other community applies for jobs whenever they are advertised.
Section 65 (1) of the County Governments Act, 2012 provides that at least 30 per cent of the vacant posts at entry level be filled by candidates who are not from the dominant ethnic community in a county.
The Auditor General has cited the county assembly to be “in breach of the law on promotion of ethnic diversity in employment.”
Currently, there is no legislation that governs the transfer of staff from one county to the other, meaning Nyamiura will be stuck with the staff it employed and can not sack them.
“You want to tell us people from neighbouring Homa Bay, Kericho and Bomet counties never apply for jobs in Nyamira,” said Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna.
There are however, reports that some counties particularly in the nothern part of the country employs staff from specific clans, depending on where the Governor comes from.
