The State Department for Public Service is under pressure to address ethnic disparities in its workforce after an audit revealed that members of one community account for 40 per cent of its employees, exceeding the legal threshold for ethnic representation in public institutions.
The findings have prompted the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee to demand corrective measures, warning that the department should uphold the principles of fairness, inclusivity and equal opportunities in public appointments.
The committee, chaired by Butere MP Tindi Mwale, raised the concerns on Wednesday while examining Auditor-General’s reports for the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 financial years.
The audit established that 117 of the department’s 294 employees came from the same ethnic community, contrary to Section 7(2) of the National Cohesion and Integration Act, 2008, which requires public establishments to ensure that no more than a third of their workforce is drawn from one ethnic community.
The report further indicated that 34 per cent of the employees in senior positions, covering job groups P to U, belonged to the same community.
Mwale said public institutions had a responsibility to reflect Kenya’s ethnic diversity and comply with the law governing representation in government employment.
“It is sad that they are breaching the law,” he said, calling on the department to demonstrate leadership in promoting equitable representation across the public service.
MPs call for fairness in public appointments
Committee Vice-Chairperson Amina Udgoon Siyad, the Garissa County MP, said the department should set an example for other government agencies by ensuring that qualified Kenyans from different communities have fair opportunities to secure public appointments.
Other members, including Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera, Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuuda, Wajir South MP Adow Mohamed, Teso South MP Mary Emaase and Chepalungu MP Victor Koech, also called for measures to correct the imbalance.
Appearing before the committee, Public Service Principal Secretary Dr Jane Kere Imbunya acknowledged the disparity but attributed it partly to staff transfers and deployments from other ministries and government agencies.
She told the MPs that although recruitment had initially taken regional balance into account, subsequent staff movements had altered the department’s ethnic composition.
“These movements, while necessary for operational efficiency, inadvertently disrupted the ethnic balance initially achieved through equitable recruitment,” she said.
Imbunya said the department would undertake an ethnic diversity audit to establish the current composition of its workforce and identify areas requiring intervention.
She added that future recruitment would give consideration to under-represented regions and communities while retaining merit as a key criterion in the selection process.
The proposed audit is expected to provide a basis for determining the extent of the imbalance and guiding measures to improve ethnic representation within the department.
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