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Nairobi MCAs question ethnic composition of city inspectorate

By COLLINS OMULO November 22nd, 2018 2 min read

A storm is brewing at City Hall over alleged demotions and promotions of certain members of staff by the executive along tribal lines.

This comes after the Nairobi City Workers Union, in a letter addressed to the Nairobi County Public Service Board (NCPSB), alleged of irregular demotions and promotions at City Hall Inspectorate Department.

A list of senior officers at the department, provided by the department, revealed that only eight tribes hold senior positions in the department with the Kikuyus and Kalenjins dominating.

Kikuyus have a total of 14 senior officers, followed by Kalenjins at 6, Kisii’s at 5, Luos 3, Kamba, Luhya and Maasai with 2 officers each and Somali with a single officer.

DEMOTED

Pumwani Ward MCA Paul Ndung’u also raised the alarm over the same alleging that some senior officers, directors of departments, have been demoted to junior positions at the inspectorate department under unclear circumstances.

“I have facts including screenshots and me asking the question before the Assembly was not a joke,” said Mr Ndung’u appearing before the County Assembly Labour and Social Welfare committee on Tuesday.

In his request for a statement last month, Mr Ndung’u had requested for the committee to inquire circumstances that led to the demotions, and criteria used in the demotion and promotion of officers in the department including those in an acting capacity.

REFUTED CLAIMS

But appearing before the committee chaired by MCA Peter Wanyoike on Tuesday, Nairobi chief officer security compliance Mr Tito Kilonzi refuted the claims, saying that the ward representative might have misinterpreted a periodical redeployment of the senior officers that was made by the department to mean a demotion.

“As far as we are concerned, none of our officers have been demoted to a junior position. We are aware people have misinterpreted the redeployment we have periodically undertaken, more especially of the senior officers to mean demotion, of which it is not,” said Mr Kilonzi.

He added that the redeployments are always done without malice or prejudice but with consideration of one’s ability to perform a given task effectively with academic qualifications or training, exceptional performance and experience among the criteria used in the process.