It’s now official. Murmurs of discontent over lack of ethnic diversity in plum state jobs have been proven to be accurate by a new report authored by The Public Service Commission (PSC).
According to the report forwarded to parliament, the Kikuyu Community which President Uhuru Kenyatta hails from, and the Kalenjin Community which Deputy President William Ruto hails from, account for 29 percent and 11 percent of the 417 top jobs in government.
The 417 top jobs include Principal Secretary, Ministry Directors, Parastatal Chief Executive and Ambassador positions.
PSC’s report shows that the Kikuyu Community accounts for 27% of Kenya’s 66 ambassadors with Kalenjins accounting for 14% of the positions.
The Kikuyu community also dominates parastal chief executive positions by taking 20% of the positions while the Kalenjin community takes 19.4%, Luo 14.4% and Luhya 10%.
The domination of the government jobs by a few communities goes against the spirit of the constitution which anticipated that appointment to state positions would be reflective of the face of Kenya which boasts of 47 different ethnic communities.
“Ethnic representation in the service is examined against the corresponding national population proportion,” Margaret Kobia, the Cabinet Secretary said in the report.
The report further shows that the Kikuyu community is over-presented among the top officers in government with 120 positions that accounted for 29 per cent of the senior jobs against their 17 per cent share of population based on 2019 Census.
The community accounted 20 per cent of parastatal CEO jobs and 27 per cent of top positions in foreign missions
The Kalenjin community-controlled 19.4 percent of parastatal CEO jobs, 14 percent of top embassy jobs, and 11 percent of senior jobs in the civil service.
On the other hand, the Luo community control 14.4 per cent CEOs positions in parastatals and 10 per cent of top government jobs despite accounting for 11 percent of Kenya’s population.
The Meru community is also overrepresented in government despite accounting for four percent of the country’s population.
The Luhya community accounted for eight per cent of senior positions in the civil service and 10 per cent of top jobs in the foreign missions.
This means communities such as the Kisii, Arabs, Asians, Ogiek and Mijikenda are underrepresented.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is the fourth head of state, of the four, three including the incumbent hail from the Kikuyu community while the late Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, Kenya’s second president hailed from the Kalenjin community.
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