Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Peter Munya was on Tuesday put on spot for the hiring of the present Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) Managing Director, which was done in a total breach of law.
The Members of the National Assembly Trade Committee interrogated how the CS appointed Bernard Njiraini, who emerged sixth in the interview.
The said recruitment happened when Munya was still the Trade CS, where he served before he was reshuffled to the Agriculture docket in January.
According to the law, the CEO should be competitively sourced, and the recruiters are required by the constitution to present the names of the three best candidates to the Cabinet Secretary for final approval.
In documents tabled before the committee by Trade Chief Administrative Secretary Lawrence Karanja, Njiraini’s name was not among the three names submitted.
Njiraini was one of the two additional names that the National Standards Council (NSC) recommended to the Cabinet Secretary for consideration.
NSC had submitted the names of Nixon Kipkemoi Sigey, Martin Chesire, and Geoffrey Karau Muriira to the Cabinet Secretary as the best three candidates according to the order of ranking.
The council also recommended Njiraini and Fahmy Shaiye’s names from the shortlist for consideration.
Part of a letter NSC Chairperson sent to CS Munya read,
“The council interviewed a total of 10 of the 11 shortlisted candidates, and I am pleased to present to you the top three candidates in order of ranking to enable you to appoint a substantive managing director for the organization.”
The minister’s choice flouts the Kebs Human Resource manual that restricts the appointment of the best three candidates.
From the interviews, Karau emerged the best candidate at 78 percent, Sigey second at 74 percent, Chesire third with 72 percent. Njiraini became sixth with 64 percent.
The committee chairperson Kanini Kega (Kieni MP), directed the new Trade CS Betty Maina to appear before them on Tuesday next week to shed light on the issues about the recruitment of the current Kebs CEO.
Trade Principal Secretary Francis Owino and CAS Karanja represented the CS at the meeting on Tuesday, 10 March.
MP for Kipkelion West Hillary Kosgei asked the CS to enlighten the Parliament over the process of selecting and appointing the Managing Director of Kenya Bureau of Standards, adding that there was interference from outside.
Kosgei faulted the CS of meddling with the first interview conducted on 9 April 2019. He also claimed that Sigei was the best candidate from the interview while Chesir and Lukas Meso followed.
According to the tabled documents, Munya ordered for re-advertisement of the post saying that Deloitte Consulting, which conducted the interviews, had made a mistake in the selection of candidates.
