Cohesion team to release report on ethnic jobs

National Cohesion and Integration Commission Chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia has said the body will release a report on appointments driven by ethnicity in the public sector October 14, 2010. FILE

Kenya's cohesion body is set to release a report on appointments driven by ethnicity in the public sector.

The report will seek to address concerns that a number of universities and state agencies are largely staffed with members from the same communities.

“We hope to stem tribalism in our universities with the aim of promoting diversity and integration,” said Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission chairman Thursday during the launch of a checklist on hate speech for journalists.

Dr Kibunjia has pointed that most vice-chancellors are appointed along tribal lines or on the basis of dominant ethnic affinities in the regions where universities are located, rather than on merit.

Higher Education minister William Ruto has already set up a task force to examine ethnic-driven appointments in public universities and other institutions of higher learning.

The NCIC also raised concern over the proliferation of ethnic-based radio stations whose programmes have been deepening tribal passions, bigotry and exclusiveness.

He challenged the FM stations to come up with programmes that champion national integration.

At the same time, Dr Kibunjia advised Kenyans to stop hate speech against gay communities saying the constitution safeguards everybody against discrimination.

“Nobody should be discriminated on the basis of tribe, race or sexual orientation.”

Recently, Special Programmes minister Esther Murugi  has been criticised for her statement calling for accommodation of gays in society.

Dr Kibunjia has said that appointment of vice-chancellors and college principals according to tribal considerations was spreading to other ranks of employment in Kenya’s seven public universities, made worse by a rise in the incidence of nepotism.

The problem of ethnicity has become more apparent with the recent appointment of principals to 13 newly created colleges and campuses under the seven public universities. The new institutions were set up over the past two years to increase access to higher education.

“Most of the universities and colleges are headed by people from the communities where these institutions are based.”

“This is because the recruitment process for university vice-chancellors and college principals is flawed,” he said recently.

The commission has been vocal on the need to eliminate tribalism and other factors that led to the 2008 post-election violence.

In May, Higher Education Permanent Secretary Crispus Kiamba called for an audit of how top officers in public universities were recruited, to establish if the law was being adhered to.

The order came in the wake of an outcry over the alleged flourishing of tribalism in the appointment of principals and senior managers at constituent colleges of universities.