Kenya: Majority Leader Aden Duale yesterday launched a scathing attack on the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) when he accused it of nepotism, tribalism and cronyism. He also claimed he had evidence of bias in promotions and incompetence among the commission’s staff.
Speaking when he initiated debate on the Public Service (Values and Principles) Bill, Duale said PSC had to ensure merit, competence and regional balance as top of the list in its criteria of picking parliamentary staff.
“I want to put it on record that the PSC staff in both the National Assembly and the Senate does not represent the face of the country,” said Mr Duale.
Duale pushed for reforms within the commission to give Parliament a moral high ground to check the other constitutional commissions.
“The fact that PSC would go and recruit their girlfriends, boyfriends and cronies is the reason for the low standards in the processing of documents. You went to the village and picked people who had no papers,” Duale said as he notified the House there were many complaints of shoddy work at the House Business Committee.
NATIONAL VALUES
The majority leader said the principles of transparency in hiring and promotions, fairness in governance and equal opportunity for all Kenyans had to apply to PSC, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), the public service, Teachers Service Commission and the National Police Service.
“Before we point fingers at JSC and the Public Service Commission, we must first clean up PSC. I have nothing against commissioners because I gave them my vote, but with this bill, things will have to change,” he said.
On the other hand, MPs were upbeat that the bill would entrench the national values laid out in the Constitution to inform the hiring of public servants and improve service delivery within Government departments.
Majority Whip Katoo ole Metito (Kajiado South), Deputy Minority Whip Chris Wamalwa (Kiminini), Asman Kamama (Tiaty) and Florence Kajuju (Meru) said the bill would boost efficiency in the civil service because it allowed for the performance of public servants to be audited.
“There has to be set criteria of performance appraisal in the public service,” said Mr Wamalwa.
“Wananchi are supposed to be served like kings and queens because they are the ones who pay the taxes. Public servants must be reminded they are not the bosses,” said Kamama, adding, “There are some public bodies where all employees come from the same community and so they discuss business in their mothertongue and translate the minutes into English. We should not allow that.”
Kajuju said the public servants should also be continuously trained, their integrity monitored and efficiency rated.
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