There is disquiet in the National Government Administration after at least 13 senior officials were overlooked in promotions and instead, their juniors allegedly favoured. 

This is despite the Public Service Commission seconding the county commissioners for promotions saying they were the most qualified. 

Investigations by the People Daily showed that most of the promotions in the Ministry of Interior and National Administration in the past two years were not based on years of service, discipline or performance but partly on cronyism and tribalism. 

An interview with some of the 13 county commissioners said despite qualifying to be posted in the 47 counties after undergoing PSC interviews they were left “hanging”. 

“Even after PSC, led by its chairman Ambassador Anthony Muchiri, said we were the most qualified officers to take up the positions after interviews, we were overlooked and others selected for the posts,” one of the aggrieved commissioners said. 

The commissioners said the PSC, through Muchiri and his board members, recommended that the 13 county commissioners should have been considered first to take up the positions since they were the ones who qualified after the interviews. 

The commissioners complained that some of those holding the positions did not even participate in any interview as required by law yet they were posted to various counties. 

The jobs for the positions of the county commissioners were advertised on February 24, 2024, and interviews were conducted between February and March 2024 at PSC offices in Nairobi. Usually, it is the PSC which declares the vacancies. 

The commissioners who spoke to People Daily claimed junior officers were posted to various positions, leaving those who sat for the interview on a higher job group deployed in ministries that do not conform to their credentials. 

The officials who sought anonymity for fear of victimisation added that the county commissioners some with less than two years’ experience were deployed without the authorisation of the PSC, thus undermining service delivery to the public. 

Some of those who did not attend the interviews were, however, posted to various counties due to their closeness to some top government officials or being proposed by government-friendly politicians. 

The PSC has the mandate to interview and promote by law, including the county commissioners yet they were completely ignored during the exercise.  

Bribery allegations 

The commissioners who spoke to People Daily in Nairobi regretted that the recommendation by the PSC that the administrators be subjected to interviews before posting were ignored. 

Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen is, however, said to have also vouched for PSC to conduct fresh interviews for the county commissioners’ positions but this was not done. 

The CS is said to have insisted it was wrong for the administrators with experience as low as two years to have taken the positions and that those who did not merit should be investigated and the positions given to the right people. 

Other sources claimed a ministry official collected bribes for as much as Sh500,000 to dish out the positions. 

Some of the commissioners in higher job groups who were left out in the promotions have threatened to resign if the ministry does not address their grievances. 

They questioned how the government expected them to take up instructions from ‘junior’ officers who were unfairly promoted. “Some of us are in Job Group T yet those we are supposed to take instructions from are in Job Group P. It is quite inhuman,” one of the commissioners told People Daily. 

They also asked President William Ruto to order investigations into the matter, saying some of them were left out of job upgrades unfairly. 

PSC spokesperson Brown Kutswa said the commission does not recommend civil servants for promotions but appoints them. “The promotions are done on merit. We usually conduct suitability tests to get the best then appoint.” 

Speaking to People Daily by phone, Kutswa said: “We do not write to the ministry to appoint civil servants as the power is vested in us. Once we make the appointment, it is communicated to the authorised officer, in this case, the PS. The role of the PS is to communicate the appointment formally.” 

Kutswa said the commission only recommends state officers such as university and other institutions’ top officials, for appointment by the President.