Commission raises alarm over govt recruitments

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission has raised alarm over the lopsided ethnic recruitment in some government departments.

Speaking to the Nation on Monday, just hours after meeting Prime Minister Raila Odinga at his Treasury office, commission chairman Mzalendo Kibunja said his team had asked the PM to ensure that no government body had more than one-third of its membership from one ethnic group.

“Just as he and President Kibaki raised the profile of the fight against corruption in the public service, we felt it had to be the same with National Cohesion,” Dr Kibunja said.

The matter of ethnicity in the Public Service has been subject of various complains, with the Parliamentary Committee on Equal Opportunity, having already asked the Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura to ensure that the civil service represented the face of Kenya at all levels.

On Monday, the commissioners petitioned Mr Odinga to ask the President to publicly mark the third anniversary of the National Accord on February 28.

“They should come up and show solidarity with the National Cohesion (it is important to bring the country together),” said Mr Kibunja.

The commissioners plan to hold national interdenominational prayers on that day to help perpetuate social integration in the country.

“Going forward, we’d like February 28 to become the National Prayer Day, for it marks a great day in the history of our nation,” he said.
The NCIC is a product of the National Accord –the agreement that gave birth to the coalition government.

Dr Kibunja said the Prime Minister was “very supportive” and assured the commissioners that he will take action.

The Prime Minister, the NCIC chairman said, asked the commissioners to investigate the hate speech perpetuated in vernacular stations saying it was a contributor to the ethnic tensions.

“We are an issue-based commission. Our work is to go where we have tension, assess the situation and advice the government,” said Dr Kibunja.

The team is also said to have asked the Prime Minister for additional Sh300 million to help it carry out its functions. Its budget allocation for now is Sh102 million.

Mr Odinga asked the teams to carry out “more research on the origin of tribalism” and advice the government.

The PM is said to have assured the commissioners that the government was committed to supporting all commissions that arose from the National Accord.

The NCIC has been in the background only arising intermittently, as was the case recently, when it came out to protest the arrest of aliens in the country.

On Monday, Dr Kibunja said, a meeting to follow-up on the arrests of aliens, many of them from Somalia, was set up with the Minister of Internal Security. The dates are yet to be confirmed.

He insisted that the matter did not come up in the commission’s discussions with the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister has since said that Somali’s were not targeted in the swoop to rid the country of illegal immigrants.