Baringo County Board skips assembly summons over staff recruitment

Baringo County Public Service Board led by Joseph Korir failed to honour summons by the Baringo County Assembly to shed light on the alleged illegal recruitment of staff.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Kemboi had summoned the County Secretary Jacob Chepkwony and Korir at 10 am over allegations of corruption in the recruitment of staff.

But Chepkwony and Korir send a text message to the Speaker saying they would not be available, which agitated the Member of the County Assembly (MCAs) who summoned them again at 2pm.

The duo were expected to shed light on alleged irregularities during the recent recruitment, which locked out long-serving casual workers.

This follows a motion of urgency on Tuesday last week by the Kanu Nominated MCA, Sharon Keter, raising concern over the board's recent advertisements.

The MCAs were infuriated by Korir’s decision to send a text message as an apology terming it disrespectful.

Chepkwony had earlier also issued an apology via a text message during the 10 am summons but he showed up in the assembly at around 3pm after the summon was extended to afternoon.

The members were unanimous that the mode of communication by the board and the county secretary reflects their laxity in service delivery.

“This is a joke, we heard in the morning that they are not coming, we made the request last week asking for basic information, this shows how these officers are incompetent in their work,” Keter said.

The mover of the motion regretted that casual laborers were suffering after years of serving without being employed on permanent terms.   

Keter questioned how the recruitment for various positions, such as revenue clerks and enforcement officers, was conducted given that those on contracts were not considered.

She said that the interviews failed to reflect the ethnic and regional diversity.

“There are casual workers who have worked without being employed on permanent and pensionable terms, which is a violation of section 37 of the Employment Act, Cap 226,” she added.

The Nominated MCA sought to have the board suspend the recruitment of new clerks and enforcement officers until the County Assembly conducts an audit of the recruitment process.

Keter wants the board to provide a list of all casual workers for scrutiny following the irregularities.

“Board should provide a list of all casual workers across all departments and explain why they have not been converted to permanent terms,” she said.

She asked Chepkwony and Korir to explain why the casual officers had not been paid for seven months.

“The Baringo County Service Board has to disclose how many positions were advertised for each category,” she added.

The MCA further accused the board of not shortlisting minority groups and persons with disabilities, and called for investigations into the matter.

The board was put to task over the recruitment of casual workers in September 2022 and requested to submit the names to the county assembly.

The MCAs wondered why casual workers employed between 2013-2017 were yet to be converted to permanent terms.

The Speaker found Korir in contempt for skipping the summons and adjourned the motion to next week on Tuesday.

He gave the County Executive Committee Devolution, Chief Officer Devolution and labour, Chepkwony and Korir a day to avail the requested documents in hard and soft copy to the assembly.

“We don’t take the summons lightly, having written them letters and chosen not to appear. The summons were to Korir and Chepkwony which were in person. We have people who have been working in the county as causals since 2013, we want to know the procedure of employment,” the Speaker said.

He said that the issues raised were critical and allowing the CS to speak would have jeopardised the process.