This archive report was first published on 24 October 2019.
On October 24, 2019, a parliamentary report exposed ethnic and regional imbalance in public jobs in Kenya.
The report by the National Assembly's Cohesion and Equal Opportunity committee, chaired by nominated MP Maina Kamanda, reviewed 24 public agencies and found that none of them had equitable representation of all 43 ethnic groups in the country.
According to the report, some institutions had skewed hiring in favor of the communities where the ruling elite hail from. For instance, the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute had 37.91 percent of its staff from the Kisii community, while the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital had 69.74 percent of its staff from the Kalenjin community.
Under the diversity policy for State Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) released in December 2015 by the Public Service Commission (PSC), ethnic groups whose job representation surpasses their corresponding national population proportion are considered to be over-represented.
Out of the 24 institutions reviewed, 13 had not even attempted to comply with the diversity requirement as defined under the National Cohesion and Integration Act.
The institutions that failed to comply include the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kerio Valley Development Authority, Kenyatta National Hospital, and Lake Victoria North Water Services Board.
