Public institutions have previously shown an increasingly fertile ground for breeding tribalism, indicating a worrying trend that is likely to draw back gains made in national unity.
Ordinarily, the appointment of officials into these institutions must be done through checks and balances provided for by the Constitution promulgated in 2010.
Unfortunately this process has recently been guided by political innuendo informed by negative ethnicity rather than by objectivity.
The process of appointing the Moi University Vice Chancellor is one such case in the past.
The first recruitment process for the VC was revoked by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i after it emerged that university council members leaked candidate results to local politicians.
According to Auditor General Edward Ouko’s report ,Employment records at Kenyatta University point to ethnic unfairness.
In his 2016/2017 audit report, Ouko revealed a worrying trend in staffing at the university which should be guided by the National Cohesion and Integration Act, 2008. The Act provides that no public funded institution shall have more than one-third of its staff from same ethnic extraction.
“A review of the university staff data as of 30 June 2017 revealed that one ethnic community accounted for 45 per cent of senior management, 39 percent academic staff and 42 percent on non-teaching staff,” Ouko’s report says.