Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki on Wednesday said the government is open to involving the public in the recruitment of chiefs and assistant chiefs.
Speaking while appearing before the Senate National Security, Defence, and Foreign Relations Committee, the Cabinet Secretary said that although the recruitment of this cadre of state officers is administered by the Public Service Commission (PSC), the government, is open to taking a different direction to enhance efficiency and cut out incompetence.
The Cabinet Secretary however stressed that recruitment of chiefs and sub chiefs is a preserve of the national government and lawmakers shouldn't expect anything beyond what's legally allowed.
"The recruitment of chiefs and assistant chiefs is governed by the scheme of service which is administered by the Public Service Commission (PSC) and while they are in service, we normally do continuous training and orientation so that the public interest element is maintained," the CS stated.
Responding to questions from the Baringo Senator William Cheptumo-led committee, Kindiki further revealed that the government, following numerous complaints of bureaucracy in the process of recruiting chiefs and assistant chiefs said the government will be recruiting these two categories of state officers immediately once a vacancy in the office arises.
In particular, the CS said the government will reduce the recruitment period from the typical 90 days to 60 days.
"It is the policy decision that all vacancies for chiefs and assistant chiefs will be filled within this financial year and no office of a location or sublocation chief should fall vacant, "said the CS.
Questioned on why the government is yet to fill similar positions in many parts of the country, the CS said that the process was hampered by the 2022 general elections.
"Ordinarily when we have elections we pause such processes so that they are not interfered with by the political events, now that the elections are behind us, we have taken the decision that all positions of chiefs and assistant chiefs countrywide are going to be filled immediately without any further delay," he said.
The CS, while responding to questions on political interference in the recruitment process of national administration officials, accused powerful politicians of constant interference and forcing the recruiting authority to favor their preferred candidates.
“I know what the Senators mean, by politician involvement, the actual meddling where a politician wants to decide on who to become chief and that is wrong,” CS Kindiki responded.
During the session, Kindiki declined to provide nationwide data on the vacancies, saying that the government needs to consider several aspects before furnishing lawmakers with the information.
"Based on all these reasons that cause vacancies in the office of the chief and assistant chief, the accurate data on the vacancies within counties cannot be retrieved except if for example we are asked for a particular county at a particular date in which case we can freeze the date and give the information," said Kindiki.
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