Shame as State Agencies Reject Govt Interns

PSC Interns undergoing a three-day training at Kasarani indoor gymnasium. Photo/Courtesy

Days after hundreds of graduate interns were recruited, trained and dispersed by the Public Service Commission (PSC) to various government corporations, a number of the agencies have turned away the interns.

According to reports, the affected interns are said to be victims of a standoff between the Public Service Commission (PSC), parastatals and other State agencies that have halted their absorption as the institutions seek to control the recruitment process.

one of the PSC interns receiving an appointment letter from a PSC official. The interns were supposed to report to their work stations between  October 14-31, 2019. Photo/Courtesy

It is alleged that the institutions failed to welcome the interns because they were not consulted by the public employment body PSC claiming that they had already brought in their employees.

Already, interns posted to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Bureau of Standards, Kenyatta National Hospital, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Media Council of Kenya, Kenya Medical Research Institute and the Kenya Revenue Authority have been rejected.

Some heads of State agencies accused PSC of having carried out the interviews which saw an inaugural batch of 3,600 graduates selected without involving them, leading to suspicion over the exercise.

According to some of them, the government was planning to use interns as secret spies who were out to implicate them of corruption cases just as the case with former KRA interns.

“The issue of KRA is still fresh in our minds, where the government sent in tens of State agents who ended up implicating the very people who were supposed to train them, in corruption. With the kind of situation we are in at the moment, who would want to consciously dig their own grave by allowing in would-be spies?” asked one parastatal head as quoted by a local daily.

Another agency boss claimed that some areas such as finance, accounts and ICT are too sensitive that they “cannot trust someone from outside to work on a temporary basis”.

Others said the PSC did not ask them for their staffing needs to enable them to specify the kind of personnel they required.

Distraught interns who have been turned away have already expressed their displeasure blaming the PSC and the corporations for the misunderstandings.

“I reported to a government agency that deals with policy issues on Monday, but the HR department told me that they had not received any communication from PSC about my being posted there. They said they had already recruited their own interns and they had nothing to do with PSC,” narrated one IT graduate.

The over 3,000 interns were dispatched on Friday, October 11, after a three-day training held a Kasarani Stadium indoor gymnasium.

Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia commissioned them to various ministries, departments and state agencies to start a year’s work programme that comes with a monthly stipend of Ksh20,000.

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