The Public Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday presented a developed plan that is intended to guide recruitment in the public service so as to promote ethnic diversity.
The report presented to the National Assembly committee on Administration and National Security seeks to include the country's 45 ethnic communities in public service.
According to the formula, the recruitment of the Kikuyu community will be limited to 17 percent places in the public service, while the Luhya community will be limited to 13 percent, with Kalenjin being allocated 12.8 percent and Luo at 10 percent.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta with members of PSC"]
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The new formula is also meant to enhance opportunities for all Kenyans proportional to their national population strength.
The decision by the PSC to develop the criteria is aimed at addressing a problem that was recently disclosed by the National Cohesion and Integration Commision (NCIC), which published a report revealing that only five main ethnic groups dominate employment in the public service.
The plan was presented to the House team by Commissioner Patrick Gichohi when he led the PSC to make the submission of the 2018/19 budget proposal for the commission.
Mr Gichohi requested the committee to look at the formula and invite the commission to interrogate with a view of either formalizing it or developing legislation to address the constant complaints regarding the domination of public service by some ethnic groups.
A report made by Intergovernmental steering committee for Carps that broke down all ethnic groups noted that Kikuyu community has the highest share of the total number of employees in the civil service at 18, 617.
An estimate that is a little more than a quarter of the total number of employees in the national government and twice as much as the Luhya community which has 12.2 percent which is 8,822 of the total workforce.
Kalenjins are ranked third with 8, 275 employees which are equivalent to 11.4 percent of the total workforce.
Other tribes that makeup the top 10 ethnic groups within the civil service include the Embu with 1.9 percent, Mijikenda with 2.3 percent and the Maasai with 1.4 percent.
[caption caption="File image of President Uhuru Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto and their cabinet members"]
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