The National Assembly Committee on Cohesion and Equal Opportunities has urged the Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) to address ethnic imbalances in its workforce and ensure disadvantaged groups receive equal employment opportunities.
The committee said the Service’s nationwide presence, with prisons and other facilities in every county, gave it an advantage in implementing constitutional requirements on ethnic diversity and inclusion in public sector employment.
Committee Chairperson Adan Yusuf Haji said the Service should use its extensive network to ensure its workforce reflects Kenya’s ethnic diversity.
“With prisons in all counties, I don’t expect the Agency not to comply with the constitutional requirements of employment diversity,” said the Mandera West MP.
The concerns emerged during a meeting between the committee and Prisons Service Commissioner General Patrick Aranduh, who presented a report detailing the composition of the Service’s workforce.
According to the report, the Service has 33,427 officers, including 7,234 Kalenjins and 5,360 Kikuyus, figures that prompted lawmakers to question whether recruitment processes adequately represented other communities.
The committee also raised concerns over the Service’s failure to meet the legal requirement that persons living with disabilities account for at least five per cent of its workforce.
Lawmakers challenged the Commissioner General to explain why the Service had not fully exploited its presence across the country to create employment opportunities for communities hosting its institutions.
Teso North MP Oku Kaunya questioned the criteria used during recruitment, arguing that some communities appeared to have been disadvantaged in accessing employment opportunities.
“Which criteria are you using to hire officers during recruitment that only favour one community at the expense of the others?” Kaunya posed.
He said very few members of the Teso community had secured positions in the Service and urged the Prisons Service leadership to ensure minority communities receive fair consideration in future recruitment exercises.
In response, Aranduh acknowledged the existing gaps in ethnic representation and said the forthcoming recruitment exercise would provide an opportunity to address the disparities.
“We have forwarded our requests for recruitment and we are waiting for approval and dates. We will use the exercise to ensure we correct ethnic imbalances in our employment,” he said.
The Commissioner General also presented the Service’s gender distribution, indicating that men accounted for the majority of its workforce.
Of the 33,427 officers, 25,227 are male, representing approximately 75 per cent, while 8,200 are female, accounting for 24.5 per cent.
Aranduh told the committee that the figures demonstrated progress towards gender balance, although the lawmakers’ concerns centred on ethnic diversity and the representation of persons living with disabilities.
The committee’s intervention places renewed focus on the obligation of public institutions to uphold equal employment opportunities, promote national cohesion and ensure recruitment practices reflect Kenya’s constitutional principles of fairness and inclusion.
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