Senior managers at the State-owned Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) on Tuesday confessed to hiring their relatives at the monopoly. A House committee was told that some employees had as many as five relatives on the firm’s payroll. Human resource director Rose Minja, who disowned the hiring practice, said the trend had kicked off in 2003 and was normally done when she was away on leave. The top officials, including suspended managing director Selest Kilinda, said their relatives were working at the cash-rich company, lending credence to an Efficiency Monitoring Unit (EMU) report that had recommended, among other things, the sacking of Mr Kilinda and five other senior managers. Those who appeared before the parliamentary committee on Energy were board chairman Samuel Maluki, Mr Kilinda, Rose Osiako (human resource manager), John Kitethe (business development manager), Bramwel Wanyalkha (engineering manager) and Samuel Odoyo. They defended themselves against claims of nepotism. Ms Osiako, whose daughters Mercy Santina Osiako and Linet Osiako were employed under her watch, said the practice was not restricted to managers, but also affected several other employees. “I agree my two children were employed when there were practices known as ‘internal assessment’. Quite a number of staff have relatives employed, not Osiako alone. Some have up to five relatives and that I can say without fear,” she said. The parliamentary committee is investigating nepotism at the company. The EMU report had singled out Mr Kitethe whose sister Katoni Kitethe Jane and daughter, Gladys Nzile, work at the parastatal. Mr Wanyalkha’s daughter, Lillian Juma, works at the Embakasi-based firm. A Mr Samuel Odoyo has a sister, Migao Florence Akoth, and a nephew, Zachary Otieno, working at the firm. Mr Kilinda said that while he had approved recommendations to employ all staff at job groups six to 14 (low cadre), including his two sisters and a brother, he had no role in their employment. The MD approves the recommendations to employ officers at job cadre six to 14, but the responsibility of hiring them rests with respective departmental managers,” he said. He admitted that his sisters, Agnes Kilinda and Mariatha Kilinda, and brother Donald Kilinda worked at the firm. Mr Kilinda, who was suspended in May by Energy secretary Davis Chirchir, said employment at KPC was in two levels. One was done by the board and the other by the management. “I sit in the board where I participate in the employment of senior staff from grade one to six. The rest are employed by line managers through the human resources department after I approve their recommendations,” he said. He faulted his suspension by the ministry following the release of the EMU report, saying he was not given an opportunity to defend himself against accusations of nepotism. “I was sent on compulsory leave without having the benefit to defend myself. I have not read the entire report of EMU, which has attachments that are missing in the abridged version that I have. I had no role in employing my blood relatives. My record at KPC is well known,” he said. Mr Maluki defended Mr Kilinda’s record, saying he had turned around the company from making losses to a turnover of over Sh7 billion. “The EMU report has serious inaccuracies. The fact that Mr Kilinda’s relative work at KPC does not mean that he practised nepotism. That is not reason enough to sack him,” he said. But MPs took issue with his assertion, accusing him of failing to implement EMU’s recommendation to suspend five other managers with relatives working at the company. By virtue of the fact that EMU called for the suspension of other managers, and by the verdict that Kilinda has been sent packing, why have you not suspended the other officers?” asked Jamleck Kamau, the committee chairman. Committee member Roba Duba demanded to know why the other officers were still in office and why Mr Maluki had opted to set up a committee for further investigations. “It appears to me that this is a clear case of cover-up. Why are the others in office yet they were accused alongside Kilinda?” Mithika Linturi asked. Mr Maluki said as the board chairman he played no role in the appointment or hiring of junior staff and asked the committee to clarify the issues with Mr Kilinda. Ms Osiako said the culture of internal employment commonly known as assessment was introduced in 2003 by former managing director Jerry Okungu after several requests were sent to him by senior government officials. “When he got those requests from senior government officers, he would mark them down to us to do assessment for public resource purposes. He said ‘please don’t send someone away because it will look bad on us.’ Therefore we created a database on where internal recruitment could be done,” she said. Ms Minja described the practice as unacceptable. “It’s not best practice. We are taking steps to correct this practice. We can’t get the best, there is compromise and this brings dissatisfaction among existing staff,” she said. Ms Minja said all irregularities that had come to her attention had been raised with the MD and the KPC chair.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 04:54:06 +0000
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