COUNTY EMPLOYER DEMANDS BRIBES FROM JOBSEEKERS – DEPUTY SPEAKER
Members of the Embu County Public Service Board have been demanding bribes from jobseekers for the last 10 years in exchange for employment, a Ward Representative has revealed.
Deputy Speaker Ibrahim Swaleh made the damning revelation at the County Assembly chambers during debate on a report by the Committee on Administration, Public Service, Governance and ICT on the County Public Service Board’s Annual Report for the year 2022.
Swaleh who is the MCA for Kirimari Ward lamented that it was disgraceful for members of the Board to extort money from hapless families with the promise of various county jobs. He confessed that jobseekers from his Ward had been asked to cough up to Ksh 200,000 to secure employment.
The MCA opined that qualified jobseekers ought to encounter fair competition based on merit as opposed to being knocked out of the shortlist by bribe givers. Swaleh at the same time warned that remaining quiet as the vice takes root in the county was tantamount aiding and abetting corruption.
The Deputy Speaker challenged his counterparts to call out members of the Service Board whenever they demand bribes from their constituents in a bid to arrest the vice of graft entrenched in the institution. He said speaking out on corruption would scare away unethical County Government officials.
In the same breath, Muminji MCA Newton Kariuki called for fairness during the recruitment exercise for job vacancies recently announced by the County Government. He said applicants from all the 20 elective wards deserved equal employment chances as opposed to the skewed hiring of the previous regime.
Kariuki added that he did not expect to hear of cases where unemployed youths would be asked to offer any inducements to Public Service Board members to secure jobs, noting that by nearing the end of its tenure, the Board may decide to throw caution to the wind because it has nothing much to lose.
The report tabled by Makima MCA Phillip Nzangi noted that the County Public Service Board had continued to recruit more staff contrary to the law, resolutions of the Assembly passed on 13th October 2020, the June 2020 advisory from the Office of the Controller of Budget and the recommendations contained in the budget estimates for the 2020/2021 Financial Year.
