Mombasa, Mandera and Nakuru Governors devote to push for diversity in the County Public Service

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬,
𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

Appearing before the Senate committee on National Cohesion, Equal Opportunities and Regional Integration, Governors Abdullswamad Nassir of Mombasa, Mohamed Khalif of Mandera and Susan Kihika of Nakuru committed to promote diversity and inclusivity within their respective counties. 

The Senator Mohamed Chute – led committee had tasked the governors to provide information on the demographic composition of all the county government employes in terms of gender, persons with disabilities, age and ethnicity.

Mombasa County Governor told the committee that the County has the county has met the gender representation constitutional threshold with the 5,076 employees in the County Public Service as at 31st July 2024 of which 53.62% (2722) are male and 46.37% (2,354) are female.

“The County is committed towards ensuring compliance with the Constitutional requirement in Article 54(2) that outlines that the State shall ensure the progressive implementation of the principle that at least 5% five percent of the members of the public in elective and appointive bodies are persons with disabilities. Out of the 5076 employees, the County has 52 staff as Persons living with disabilities representing 1.02% of the total staff. He added.

Mandera County Governor informed the committee that the County Board has been very considerate in ensuring that person with disabilities, women, marginalized and youth are accorded equal opportunities, however the gender principle of 2/3 has not been meet as well as 5% for person with disabilities. 

” Analysis of staff composition in the County Public Service indicates that the percentage of female gender in the County Public Service stand at 25.1% and person with disabilities stand at 2.3% which falls below accepted threshold o30% and 5% respectively. On the issues of youth composition in the County Public Service, over 60% of the County Staff falls within the age bracket of 20-35 years, 77.5% of the County falls within age bracket 20-39 years on consideration of marginalized groups.” Governor Mohamed Khalif explained.

Governor Kihika highlighted the Ethnic and diversity Audit of the County Public Service 2023 conducted by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) of all the 47 county governments public service for the period 2016-2023. "Nakuru county was among 13/47 counties that had complied with section 65(e) of the CGA 2012. Nakuru county was among the 5/47 counties that had employed more than 30 ethnic groups in its county public service; and was among the 5/13 cosmopolitan counties that had complied with the law by not employing more than 70% from the dominant ethnic community." She added.

The committee which was attended by Sen. Joyce Korir – Vice Chairperson, Sen. Mwende Gataya, Sen. Chimera Raphael, Sen. Betty Montet, Sen. Kamau Joseph, Sen. James Lomenen and Sen. Beth Syengo urged to the governors to ensure their county administration is in line with the constitutional provisions promoting equal opportunities in their county public service.