Women dominate jobs within the Makueni County government, occupying 61 percent of all the positions, a report to Senate Committee on Cohesion, Equal Opportunity, and Regional Integration shows.
Makueni Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior said that, out of the 3,815-county executive establishment, 2,311 are female while 1,504 are male representing 61 percent and 39 percent respectively.
“Further, 91 officers were persons with disability representing 2.4 percent of the workforce,” Mr Kilonzo told the committee chaired by Mandera Senator Mohammed Chute that is probing the demographic composition of all employees of county governments in terms of gender, persons with disability, age, and ethnicity.
“In addition, the number of staff from non-dominant ethnic community was 281 representing 8.4 percent of the total workforce.”
Article 232(1) (i) of the Constitution provides for the affording of adequate and equal opportunities in appointments of men and women at all levels of public service.
The constitution also requires counties and the national government to afford adequate and equal opportunities for the appointment of persons with disabilities at all levels of public service against the five percent minimum.
Documents tabled before the committee by Mr Kilonzo Jr show that the Kamba community controls 92.63 percent of jobs or holds 3,534 posts.
The Kikuyu community comes in second with 90 posts or 2.36 percent, Meru (36), Kisii (32), Luhya (26), Luo (24) and Kalenjin (22).
Others are Embu (15), Taita (8), Miji Kenda (6), Mbeere (4), Maasai (3), Somali (2), Swahili Shirazi (2) and Tharaka (2).
Ajurana, Borana, Degodia, Kuria, Pokomo, Sakuye, Taveta, Teso, and Turkana each have one employee in the Makueni county government.
“In the last three years, the county has recruited 496 officers in various positions of which 247 are males and 249 are female representing 49.8 percent and 50.2 percent respectively,” Mr Kilonzo said.
“The county has continually strived to attract applicants from outside the dominant community through advertising in newspapers of wide circulation, board website and adopting a rider: ‘the county is an equal opportunity employer’.”
Mr Kilonzo said while the county has made efforts to bring the non-dominant communities, these communities decline appointments citing various reasons such as family, distance, inadequate amenities, and non-competitive salaries.
“He said the majority of those who manage to join the public service initiate transfers back to their home counties citing family-related issues as well as the distance to their home county and workstation.
In addition, Mr Kilonzo told senators that Makueni County, being a hardship and rural zone, fails to attract applicants from outside the region.
Mr Kilonzo said at the beginning of the financial year 2023/24, the county’s consolidated annual procurement plans had a total of 3.78 billion with 1.13 billion set aside for enterprises owned by women, youth, persons with disabilities, and other disadvantaged groups.
“However, the budget was revised through the supplementary budget, and the total county consolidated annual procurement plan budget was adjusted to Sh2.97 billion, with Sh890.79 million set aside for enterprises owned by women, youth, persons with disabilities, and other disadvantaged groups,” Mr Kilonzo said.
“This accounted for 30 percent of the county procurement budget. By the end of the financial year 2023/24, the county government had awarded 467 contracts for the supply of goods, works, and services worth Sh531.19 million to enterprises owned by women, youth, and persons with disabilities,” Mr Kilonzo said.
“The total contract value for all county contracts awarded during the financial year was Sh2,528,546,573. This means that the percentage of all contracts awarded to enterprises owned by these three groups was 21 percent of the total awarded contracts as per the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO).”
He said Makueni County has developed youth empowerment interventions through the Makueni Ajiry Centre, a transformative initiative aimed at empowering the youth, which is a result of a strategic partnership between the Makueni County government, Tribus TSG (A subsidiary of Centum Investment Company), and the Mastercard Foundation.
The centre has a wide range of services including digital skills training, mentorship, free access to advanced music and podcast recording studios, as well as specialised cybersecurity training and certification.