By Our Reporter.
Now it is official. All is not well for the 90 new staff hired last year in December by the municipal council of Kisumu . Their fate now hangs in the balance after five councilors moved to court to block them from being absorbed.
Although most of the employees reported to work between 2nd and 5th of January this year and immediately deployed to various departments, the manner in which they were hired has been faulted by the 5 civic leaders who petitioned a Kisumu high court to quash the decision.
The five civic leaders include Cllr George Weda, immediate former mayor Cllr. Prisca Auma Misachi, Pamela Apondi Omino, James Odhiambo Oyolo and Elly Okach.
Through their lawyer Ken Omolo the councilors have asked the court to quash the decision to hire the 90 on the basis that the process of recruitment was not transparent and procedural.
In their civil application to the High court in Kisumu dated 17th January this year, the civic leaders sought, among others, court orders prohibiting the municipal council through the town clerk Christopher Rusana from enforcing the appointment letters given to the new employees dated 22.12.2011.
They also want the court to compel the town clerk to avail to the staff and establishment committee which is charged with recruitment of staff and to the full council meeting the names and the marks scored by all the successful applicants who were interviewed on the diverse dates between 17.6.2011 and 29.6.2011 for the various posts.
The controversy which is pitying two rival camps of councilors at the council which has now sucked in a section of chief officers began sometime in June 2010 when the local government minister Musalia Mudavadi authorized the municipal council to fill the 90 vacant positions in its establishment.
During a meeting of the finance , staff and general purposes committee meeting held on 22nd of July last year, it was resolved according to minutes no.13/FS& GPC/2010 that the serving employees be promoted and their vacant positions be filled by new employees.
The vacant positions were advertised in two leading local dailies on the 11th of February last year to enable qualified staff and other members of the public to apply for the same.
Interested candidates applied for various positions as per the advertisement and on the 14th of June 2011 the names of those who were successful were short listed.
The short listed candidates whose names also appeared in the dailies as an advertisement were invited for interviews at the town hall on various dates from the 17th of June to 29.
This is where the problem began according to the five councilors.
According to them, after the interview, list of names of the successful candidates should have been tabled before a special staff and establishment committee for purposes of approval and adoption and then forwarded to the full council meeting for final approval.
Then the approved and adopted list of the successful candidates should have been displayed for the public on the notice board for all to know the results then the letters of appointments issued to the applicants.
The 5 claimed that the procedure was not duly followed as required adding that some of the people who were considered and appointed for various positions were neither short listed for the said posts nor appeared for the interviews.
Others who were short listed got jobs which they were never interviewed for , they asserted.
” The list of the successful candidates and the marks scored was never brought before a special staff and establishment committee for purposes of approval and adoption and the same was never forwarded to the full council meeting for purposes of final approval” Said Cllr. Weda.
But a source from the council who was privy to details of the recruitment told this writer on condition of anonymity that the civic wing and a section of the senior officers at the council used the process allegedly to hire their friends and relatives who he claimed included their wives, sons and daughters.
The source who was well paced to know what was going on at the time because he was in the interview panel alleged that the councilors had agreed informally that each one of them was to get two slots but some sneaked in three people hence the bitter fall out.
We reliably learnt that the council was duly served with the court injunction which is seeking to quash the recruitment on Tuesday last week and the hearing of the case kicks off on 5th of March.
Kisumu municipal has close to 1000 staff currently and those it hired were mainly watchmen save for a few who were recruited as nurses, artisans, nursery school teachers and building inspectors.
Every year it budgets for ksh1.28b and had a wage bill of Ksh 42m. This year it targets to collect ksh.865 m from its revenue sources.
Only a few weeks ago the council was in the news after its unions able employees of about 100 downed their tools demanding to be paid ksh.39 m salary arrears.
But just after two days of a low key performance, the employees abandoned the strike under unclear circumstances with even the union officials who called for it remaining silent.
ENDS.