Piece by: ALLAN KISIA

05 June 2023

• Senators were asked to consider formulating legislation that will allow the transfer of staff from one county to another.

• County Governments Act, 2012 provides that at least 30 percent of the vacant posts at entry level be filled by candidates who are not from the dominant ethnic community in a county.

All employees at Nyamira County Assembly are from one tribe save for one staff, an audit report presented to a Senate committee shows.

Appearing before County Public Accounts Committee, Nyamira County Assembly Speaker Enock Okello and Clerk Dan Orina said the devolved unit had 223 employees out of whom 222 (99.9 per cent) were members of the Gusii community.

Orina told the committee the dominant ethnic community in Nyamira is Abagusii and the majority of applicants seeking various positions happen to be from the local people.

“Since the county Assembly is already at the peak of the recommended personnel establishment, this matter may be addressed gradually going into the future,” he assured senators.

Orina further asked the House to consider formulating legislation that will allow the transfer of staff from one county to another.

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.

“In the circumstance, the County Assembly is in breach of the law on promotion of ethnic diversity in employment,” a report of the Auditor General said.

Okello and Orina had appeared before the committee to respond to the Report of the Auditor General for financial statements of the assembly for the 2019/2020 Financial Year.

Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna wondered how a county priding itself an equal opportunity employer would have almost all its staff from one tribe.

“You want to tell us people from neighbouring Homa Bay, Kericho and Bomet counties never apply for jobs in Nyamira,” he posed.

Okello said the current employees are staff who were employed by the assembly at the onset of devolution.

“The mistake was committed at the very onset of devolution but we will rectify the problem as we go forward,” he stated.

The committee said the National Cohesion and Integration Commission may be needed to intervene.

“I am a bit worried for this one person who is not Abagusii. How does he manoeuvre in the middle of people who are all from one community,” Sifuna stated.

Okello maintained advertisements for recruitment are placed in mainstream media and are open to all Kenyans to apply without discrimination.