Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities dominated recruitment in public offices, a Public Service Commission report shows.
In the 2021-22 status report presented to Parliament by PSC, 38 of Kenya's 46 ethnic communities had normal representation in the service.
The report, however, said the Kikuyu and Kalenjin were grossly over-represented while the Kisii were over-represented.
The Kenyan Somali community, the report said, was grossly under-represented, Turkana, Luhya and Mijikenda were under-represented while Kenyan Americans were not represented at all.
During the presentation, the Public Investment Committee on Governance and Education condemned TVET and PSC for not adhering to the Constitution on employment.
The committee sought to know why ethnic imbalance was still rife in some institutions 10 years after the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution.
Committee chair Jack Wamboka, the Bumula MP, said they are seeking to probe ethnic imbalance in institutions so that every Kenyan can feel their importance in the country.
He said ethnicity in public recruitment has become a disturbing issue in the country that seriously needs to be addressed.
"Public Service Commission can help Kenyans because it is not political. If you have been listening to Kenyans, they have a problem. Every other appointment that comes up, you can easily predict a community that is going to benefit from that,” Wamboka said.
“We want Public Service Commission to help us bring down tension we are experiencing in Kenya where other communities just feel that others are more important than them.”
Wamboka added that PSC must comply with the law by adhering to fairness during the recruitment of public officers.
"Moving forward, we are not going to take any excuses. Our committee has given very firm instructions, especially to Public Service Commission that they have a duty to ensure that they comply with the constitution,” he said.
"We don’t want any community feeling that they are children of a lesser God. Numerically, if you speak of the Luo community, it is number two in the republic statistics but when you look at the report of the Public Service Commission, they are totally under-represented in the recruitments and where it sits in the commission.”
Wamboka also condemned the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for recruiting a higher number of people from one community during recent hires.
The MP said more than 60 per cent of those recruited by the taxman come from one ethnic community.
“We have a situation where KRA is recruiting about 1,500 people. More than 60 per cent of those they are recruiting are coming from one community. Where are you taking Kenya, where are we headed as a country?” he posed.
“If one community takes 60 per cent of the recruitment positions, how are the other communities going to feel? Especially those communities that are missing out on the recruitments?”
Wamboka urged the government to follow the law, particularly during recruitments or appointments to help lower tension among Kenyans.
“We want to urge the President, especially on those appointments he is making directly, please follow the law. This Kenya is for all of us,” he said.
“We want a Turkana, Maasai, Abajongi, any person from Mandera, the Oromos to feel that they are part and parcel of this republic of Kenya. That will diffuse a lot of tension that we are getting back.”
He reiterated that the only way to promote fairness and peace in the country is to ensure that every Kenyan gets equal opportunity in job vacancies.
“We dream of a Kenya where it will not be 'this is my time to eat'. That people will fight to get a political power so that they can reward their promise and people from their communities,” Wamboka said.
“We want to reach a point where we think as Kenyans but not as communities. And the only way to do that is just to be fair on the way we distribute these positions.”