Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu yesterday faced the wrath of MPs over recent appointments in his ministry, which they claimed are tribal.
The lawmakers who sit in the Public Investments Committee (PIC) on governance and education chaired by Bumula MP Wamboka Wanami claimed Machogu has only been appointing his kinsmen whenever opportunities arise and thus directed Auditor General Nancy Gathungu to carry out a special audit of the establishment of the ministry.
Debate on the matter started after MPs read out a gazette notice detailing appointments of key personnel in various universities issued by the CS which they claimed out of 10 people appointed, eight were from his tribe.
The notice shows in respect to Kabianga University, the CS appointed Angelia Obaga, Peter Gathirwa and Tabitha Nyandie to be council members.
At the South Eastern Kenya University Fancy Kemei and John Ondari were appointed council members while Ben Momanyi was appointed to the Kirinyaga University council.
In Multimedia University Angelica Obaga has been appointed as a council member while in the Commission for University (CUE) appointed Lawrence Okelo and Vincent Moseti as commission members.
Wamboka claimed they are aware that the CS appointed his cronies in the case of Kaimosi Friends University at the expense of qualified individuals.
Appointing Kisiis
Said Wamboka: “It is not a coincidence that the Minister of Education is a Kisii and goes ahead to make half of his appointments from Kisii. A cabinet minister who is a Kisii only appointing Kisiis is very wrong. This is a concern running through your ministry and other departments. With this regard we are directing the auditor general to carry out a special audit of ethnic composition at the ministry of education.”
He added: “The names that have been read out six out of eight appointees are Kisiis. It actually embarrasses you for this. This is actually a moral issue.”
Narok Woman Representative Rebecca Tonkei sought to know whether it is fair that in the gazette notice 80 percent of the appointees are from one tribe.
But defending himself, Machogu refuted claims that he had appointed his cronies and actually asked the committee to look at the entire appointments instead of focusing on one gazette notice.
He said: “I have not appointed 80 percent of my community members. In Kaimosi university I have not appointed my cronies as is being alleged.”
Appointed VCs
In his submissions before the committee, Machogu also took the opportunity to clarify that in the last one year they have appointed vice chancellors to 14 universities.
The universities include Alupe, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Machakos University, Technical University of Kenya, Tharaka University, Pwani University, Karatina University, Kisii University, South Eastern Kenya University, University of Eldoret. Others are Jaramogi University of Science and Technology, Kabianga University, Tom Mboya University and Maasai Mara university.
He, however, raised concerns that Public Service Commission (PSC) has been delaying concluding appointments of the vice chancellors and Deputy Vice Chancellors.
In the case of Kaimosi Friends University, Machogu said that the PSC completed the process of recruiting a substantive Vice Chancellor, but the appointment cannot be made because the matter is in court and the court granted orders stopping the appointment pending hearing and determination of the application.
Other than the position of the Voice chancellor, he said there are two acting deputy vice chancellors at Kaimosi University Prof Julius Kemboi (Academic, student Affairs and Research) and Prof Maurice Musasia (Finance and development) whose recruitment is still pending.
He said: “In order to address the delays occasioned by the involvement of the Public Service Commission, we have drafted legislative proposals to vets the mandate of appointing vice chancellors and deputy vice chancellors in the respective university council in consultation with the cabinet secretary. The Public Service Commission will not be involved as is the case with all other state corporations.”
At the same time the committee said it will be inviting Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to investigate individuals in the ministry of Education who colluded with private universities to inflate numbers relating to their capacities as well as send double allocations to the universities.
The move comes after Machogu admitted that they could not account for about Sh 24 million that was sent to private universities as capitation.