The Nyandarua County government is on the spot over its staff ethnic composition.
According to a report by the Auditor-General, the County Public Service Board has failed to meet the 30 per cent constitutional threshold for employment of people from minority communities, and has favoured one group.
In his 2013/2014 report, Auditor-General Edward Ouko says only six out of the 202 employees on the County Public Service Board’s payroll were from minority communities during the period.
The document says the Kikuyu community had the largest employment share, at 97 per cent, in contravention of a constitutional provision on the ethnic distribution in county authorities.
In May last year, members of the Turkana community living in Nyandarua stormed several government offices in Ol Kalou Town, protesting against discrimination in employment and the issuing of national identity cards.
DISCRIMINATION
The board was criticised for declining to employ a candidate for the post of ward administrator on the grounds that she was not from Nyandarua.
“The candidate, Jemima W. Kimani, was interviewed and shortlisted for the post of ward administrator together with 20 other candidates. However, she was later disqualified on the basis of not being a resident of Nyandarua County,” says the auditor.
Some members of the Turkana community claimed that none of them had been employed by the county government.
“We are the second largest community in the county after the Kikuyus but none of us has been given any employment in the county government or in the county commissioner’s office,” a member of the group, Mr John Imbua, said during the protests.
They also stormed the Registrar of Persons office, saying their children were being denied ID cards in the county.
“When our children apply for ID cards, they are asked to go to Lodwar to register there because their parents' identity papers show they were born in Turkana,” said Mr Joseph Longis, one of the protesters.
