6,000 apply for jobs in counties transition body

PHOTO | DIANA NGILA County Transition Authority chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi during an interview at his Kenyatta International Conference Centre office. He said the authority will employ other permanent staff later.

What you need to know:

  • District commissioners and town clerks lead list of civil servants in quest to fill 1,100 vacancies in the devolved system

District Commissioners, town clerks and senior civil servants in various ministries are among more than 6,000 people who have applied to be recruited into the devolved governments transition team.

The applicants will compete for about 1,100 vacancies advertised a week ago by the County Transition Authority (CTA) as it prepares to roll out the structure for a devolved system of governance.

Successful applicants will anchor the process in all the 47 counties across the country, set to take off after the General Election on March 4, next year.

The CTA Secretary, Mr Stephen Makori, told the Sunday Nation on Thursday that there had been an overwhelming response from Kenyans wishing to take up the jobs. The Public Service Commission (PSC) is currently sorting out the applications.

“After the classification is done, the PSC and the CTA boards will interview those shortlisted to fill in the positions for transition teams that will first run the various county offices falling directly under the county governors and assembly,” said Mr Makori.

“The response is overwhelming and our board in consultation with the PSC will soon determine how to proceed with interviews to select competent candidates,” he added.

Those to be recruited will, however, assume the positions on interim basis, according to the transition authority. No official information has been released yet on the perks to be paid but a source within the authority enthused a competitive salary like that of other commissions was likely to be offered.

The Authority chairman, Mr Kinuthia Wamwangi, had earlier told the Sunday Nation that respective counties will be free to absorb the workers or recruit new ones depending on their planning priorities.

“We are recruiting the workers under the Transition Authority’s mandate to prepare for takeoff of the devolved system. These employees will ensure the county assembly and the governors’ office are up and running as soon as we are done with elections,” said Mr Wamwangi in an interview, adding that successful candidates would be posted later in January. “But they will first be trained on their new roles.”

There are nearly 25 different categories of employees, with each of the clusters mostly offering 47 positions to correspond with the number of established counties.

Only the top positions of Interim County Secretary, the equivalent of the current Clerk of the National Assembly, and the County transition team, have a similar number of deputies.

There will be 141 clerk assistants, three for each of the counties. Other job openings include head of human resource, payroll manager, record management officer, ICT manager, chief officer finance, head of treasury and head of budget policy function as well as head of supplies management.

Others are general accountants, internal auditors, and human resource administrators, sergeant at arms, budget officers and Hansard reporters.

Additionally, Mr Makori said the Transition Authority will recruit its own permanent staff comprising programme officers, transition co-ordinators and research officers for each of the counties.

They will be based at the headquarters and will be the focal liaison persons during the transition.