Principal Secretary for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Esther Muoria has been accused of presiding over a recruitment exercise in which the number of trainers approved for appointment rose from 1,000 advertised positions to 2,637 appointments.
Documents from the Public Service Commission show that the recruitment advertisement published on December 16, 2025 invited applications for 1,000 trainer positions spread across 248 technical and vocational institutions in different counties.
The advertisement divided the positions into 600 posts for degree and higher national diploma holders and another 400 posts for diploma holders, giving a total of exactly 1,000 vacancies.
Applicants were directed to submit their applications to the boards or councils of the institutions where vacancies existed before January 9, 2026, using the required Public Service Commission application form.
The advertisement listed each institution, the county where it was located and the number of degree, higher national diploma and diploma trainers required by that institution.
The final table in the advertisement placed the total number of available positions at 1,000, with no indication that another 1,637 trainers would later be included in the same recruitment exercise.
A Public Service Commission appointment letter dated June 16, 2026 later informed Muoria that 2,637 candidates had been approved for appointment as Vocational and Technical Trainers and Assistant Vocational and Technical Trainers.
The letter says the appointments followed requests sent by the State Department for TVET on April 20 and May 11, 2026, several months after the advertisement for 1,000 positions closed.
The Public Service Commission described the 2,637 positions as advertised or declared vacancies, though the advertisement attached to the complaints contains only 1,000 posts across the listed institutions.
The appointment letter directed that the successful candidates be placed on probationary terms from the dates they reported to work, with the reporting deadline set for August 16, 2026.
The appointments covered trainers placed in CSG 10 and CSG 11 across courses including automotive engineering, building technology, electrical engineering, food and beverage, plumbing, agriculture, fashion design and cosmetology.
The list runs for more than 100 pages and contains the names, identity card numbers, areas of training and job grades of the 2,637 people approved for appointment.
The documents leave a difference of 1,637 positions between the 1,000 vacancies published in the December advertisement and the 2,637 appointments approved in the June letter.
Trainers who raised the complaint accuse Muoria and officials in the State Department for TVET of adding the extra candidates without publishing another advertisement or opening a fresh application process.
They claim the additional candidates were not taken through the same advertised recruitment process followed by people who applied for the original 1,000 vacancies before the January deadline.
The complainants say the recruitment should have involved an advertisement, applications, shortlisting, interviews and appointments based on the qualifications and experience required for every position.
They accuse the State Department of leaving out trainers who have worked in technical institutions for many years, including some with more than ten years of teaching experience.
The trainers say people with long service records, classroom experience and knowledge of the new curriculum were left out as other candidates entered the appointment list through an unexplained increase in vacancies.
They accuse Muoria of recruiting people who lack the experience needed to teach technical courses and guide trainees through the Competency Based Education and Training programme assessed through CDACC.
The complaint says principals in technical institutions have raised concerns about the quality and experience of some trainers sent to their colleges, but their complaints are accused of failing to reach the senior offices.
Muoria is accused of threatening principals with demotion whenever they question recruitment decisions or complain about trainers who cannot handle the courses assigned to them.
The complainants connect the recruitment dispute to complaints about the rollout of the new TVET curriculum, saying some trainers appointed without enough experience struggle to prepare learners for practical assessments.
They accuse Muoria of blaming institutions for weak curriculum delivery after placing trainers whom the complainants describe as lacking the right experience and qualifications for technical teaching.
The latest appointment documents contain candidates from technical areas and many other fields, including human resource management, criminology, journalism, English literature, political science, communication, finance and public administration.
Some entries in the appointment documents contain incomplete course details, repeated names, inconsistent identity numbers, missing job grades and qualifications that are not clearly linked to the technical courses listed in the advertisement.
One section names candidates with qualifications in German and psychology, journalism, English literature, political science, criminology, mass communication and international relations among those included in the trainer appointment list.
Other entries list people with certificates, degrees and diplomas without clearly stating the technical subject they will teach or the institution where they will be posted.
The appointment papers contain repeated entries bearing similar names and identity details, including candidates whose names appear more than once under related or different courses.
Some identity card numbers appear unusually short or incomplete, and several entries contain typing errors involving names, qualifications, job groups and course descriptions.
The documents show one identity number appearing against two different names in one part of the list, creating questions about whether the records were checked before the appointments were approved.
Several candidates are described using the names of institutions rather than clear qualifications, with entries such as Trainer Uriri TVET, Trainer Omuga TVET, Eldoret National Polytechnic and Matili Technical Institute.
The complaint asks the Public Service Commission and the Ministry of Education to explain how candidates were shortlisted, interviewed, ranked and appointed after the number of available positions increased by 1,637.
The trainers want the State Department to publish the full interview records, scores, shortlisting lists, panel minutes and requests that led to the additional vacancies being declared.
They are seeking an explanation showing whether the extra positions were approved before the recruitment exercise began or created after the applications for the 1,000 advertised posts had already closed.
The Public Service Commission letter refers to requests from the State Department dated April 20 and May 11, 2026, but the appointment document does not explain how many positions were requested in each letter.
The letter does not state whether the additional vacancies were advertised separately, whether fresh applications were received or whether candidates were drawn from earlier recruitment lists.
The complainants accuse the department of using the later requests to introduce candidates who had not competed for positions under the advertisement published in December 2025.
They say the large difference between the advertisement and the appointment list has caused anger among trainers who applied for the 1,000 positions and were never informed about another 1,637 vacancies.
The complaint says this is not the first recruitment exercise under Muoria to face claims that appointments exceeded the number of positions advertised to the public.
The trainers accuse the State Department of advertising about 1,300 vacancies during the 2024 recruitment exercise before appointing more than 5,000 people to TVET institutions.
They claim about 4,000 people were added beyond the advertised number during that recruitment, though the documents supplied for the latest complaint relate to the 2025 and 2026 exercise.
The complainants say many of the extra recruits in both exercises were people connected to officials, politicians and senior public officers rather than applicants selected through open competition.
They accuse the State Department of using TVET recruitment to reward cronies, leaving experienced trainers in temporary and Board of Management positions without permanent jobs.
Some trainers say they have served in institutions for years, taught practical courses, handled national assessments and worked under temporary contracts before being left out of the appointment list.
The complaint says these trainers were required to apply afresh and compete for the advertised vacancies, yet other people were accused of entering the final list without going through interviews.
The recruitment advert required applicants to send forms directly to the institutions where the vacancies existed, meaning the colleges and their boards were expected to take part in receiving and handling applications.
The trainers now want the government to explain whether the boards interviewed candidates for 1,000 positions or for all the 2,637 appointments approved by the Public Service Commission.
They similarly want each institution to publish the number of applications received, the people shortlisted, interview dates, marks awarded and names forwarded for appointment.
The appointment documents do not show the institutions where each candidate will work, making it difficult to compare the 2,637 names with the specific vacancies listed in the advertisement.
The advertisement gave exact staffing numbers for each institution, with most colleges receiving between one and four positions and the larger national polytechnics receiving up to ten trainers.
The final appointment list gives names and courses without matching every candidate to the college and vacancy listed in the public advertisement.
The trainers say this makes it difficult to tell whether the 1,000 advertised positions were filled first before the remaining 1,637 candidates were added under separate vacancies.
The complaint calls for an audit covering the original advertisement, applications received by every institution, shortlisting records, interview results and the appointment list approved in June.
The trainers want the audit to identify every candidate appointed outside the 1,000 advertised positions and show the date on which each extra vacancy was created.
They want the State Department to produce written authority for the additional positions, payroll approval, budget records and staffing requests from the institutions that received the trainers.
They say the inquiry should confirm whether the Treasury approved salaries for 2,637 new trainers when the public had originally been informed about only 1,000 vacancies.
The complaint asks the Public Service Commission to explain why its letter describes all 2,637 posts as advertised or declared vacancies when the published advertisement contained only 1,000 posts.
Muoria is similarly being asked to release the two letters sent to the Commission on April 20 and May 11, which formed the basis of the appointment approval.
The trainers say those letters could show when the additional vacancies were introduced and whether the department asked the Commission to appoint candidates who were not covered by the advertisement.
The latest recruitment comes during the rollout of the Competency Based Education and Training curriculum across TVET institutions, where trainers are expected to teach and assess practical skills.
The complainants say institutions need trainers with technical knowledge, industry experience and the ability to handle practical assessments under the Curriculum Development, Assessment and Certification Council.
They accuse the State Department of weakening the programme by placing people whose qualifications do not match the technical courses they are expected to teach.
The complaint says principals later carry the blame when learners perform poorly or institutions fail to meet the requirements of the new assessment system.
The trainers want the Ministry of Education, Public Service Commission, Parliament and the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission to review the entire recruitment exercise.
They are asking the agencies to check whether the appointments complied with the advertised vacancies, public service hiring rules and the qualifications required for technical trainers.
They want reporting by the appointed trainers stopped until the difference between the 1,000 advertised positions and the 2,637 approved appointments has been explained.
The Public Service Commission letter gives the candidates until August 16, 2026 to report to their assigned stations after presenting original academic and professional certificates for checking.
The complainants say checking certificates at the reporting stage does not answer how candidates were selected, whether interviews took place or why appointments exceeded the advertisement by 1,637 positions.
Muoria and the State Department for TVET had not issued a public response to the accusations or explained the difference between the advertisement and appointment records by the time of publication.