20101017
Nation

Nairobi — A parliamentary team is to question Prime Minister Raila Odinga over the rising trend of nepotism in government appointments.

Mr Mohammed Affey, the chair of Parliament's Committee on Equal Opportunity said his team was "upset" at the way the Executive seemed reluctant to enforce the law.

"We're really concerned about this trend," he said.

He said the team will be demanding from Raila an "up-to-date audit" of the staff in the civil service.

He singled out the Treasury, public universities and the Office of the President as the main culprits where nepotism is rampant.

Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura has ordered ministries to ensure that not more than one-third of employees in any government department should be from one ethnic community.

"There seems to be a blatant violation of the law left, right and centre; there are some departments which are just rotten," Mr Affey said.

"We want competence and we believe that all Kenyans are competent. But in these departments, the bias (towards one tribe) is obvious," Mr Affey said. "Universities are the biggest culprits. Instead of becoming national institutions, they are being relegated to village institutions."

Mr Affey's team met the Head of Civil Service, Mr Francis Muthaura and raised the matter. Mr Muthaura promised to address the matter, but it seems it will take long.

Mr Aggrey Mwamu, the secretary-general of the East African Law Society, is of the view that "no attempt" has been made to address the matter.

He said that the Executive had flouted the National Cohesion and Integration Act and ought to clean up.

Mr Mwamu asked the National Cohesion and Integration Commission to make public its audit on the extent of the problem. The audit will be out this week.

"Once the audit has been made public, the government will have to enforce the law. It is a painful process, but it is something that must be done. We must bite the bullet and rid the public service of tribalism," said Mr Mwamu.

Senior Counsel Paul Muite said the trend was "dangerous" and that even the existence of a law "was obviously not working" to put a stop to the vice.

"The moment tribalism and nepotism comes into play in recruitment, you don't end up getting the best people."

Mr Muite said the answer was a reconstituted Public Service Commission, which will be vetted by Parliament.

"Once it is in place, it will have an exclusive mandate and the constitutional independence of deciding who to hire, promote, discipline and who to sack altogether," said Mr Muite. "I expect they'll deliver."

But to beat the deeply entrenched system, Mr Affey, Mr Muite and Mr Mwamu are in agreement: It requires selfless action.

"If we continue in this business-as-usual manner, we won't get very far," he said.

They said that if the trend is not corrected as we head to the tumultuous election period, the feeling of ethnic exclusion following the "it's our turn to eat' culture, could escalate.

They refuted the argument that as long as a person is competent then focus should be their ability and not their ethnic background, saying, that gave a latent advantage to people who came from the same tribe as the decision-makers in the recruitment panel.

"Kenyans have been independent for over 47 years; it doesn't make sense to say that only people of a certain community are competent in some places. There has to be a form of affirmative action to ensure that every community feels included in developing this country," Mr Mwamu said. "Some people get these positions because they have their people in the right places. How can it be that when they were not in those powerful seats, their kin were not employed in government?"