Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui has accused the National Social Security Fund of lacking ethnic diversity among its senior management staff.
In an application before the High Court, Chelugui said that he declined to gazette one of the nominees submitted by the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) to the NSSF board of trustees because it lacked ethnic diversity.
According to the Labour CS, the NSSF board, as currently constituted, has three members from Nyanza and the nominee who COTU submitted, Rose Omamo, was from the same region.
This would have made the board comprise of four members from Nyanza region out of the maximum seven.
“NSSF lacks ethnic diversity among its senior management staff, and COTU still has time to regularise the anomaly by nominating individuals who meet the right criteria set out in the Constitution of Kenya and NSSF,” stated Chelugui in the court documents.
Additionally, the CS also wants the court to set aside orders issued by Justice Monica Mbaru which barred NSSF from holding any meetings.
He said the order issued in December last year is damaging to the governance and smooth functioning of NSSF board of trustees mandated to have an oversight over funds worth approximately Sh285 billion of taxpayers’ monies.
Chelugui said the fund being taxpayers’ monies stands exposed to theft or mismanagement if the instant application is not allowed.
“The orders granted have paralysed operations of the NSSF, which is impacting negatively on the greater public good,” he added.
In 2019, Members of Parliament questioned ethnic imbalance in State agencies such as NHIF and NSSF.
This is after it emerged that five communities’ control over 70 per cent of the workforce in key State agencies, it has emerged.
For instance, at the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), out of the 1,927 staff members, 1,323 are from the five communities—Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Kamba, Luhya and Luo.
The situation was the same at the NSSF where out 1,307 staff members, 980 or 75 per cent are from five ethnic communities.
NHIF has 21 persons with disabilities while NSSF has 44.
Appearing before the Select Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity of the National Assembly, NHIF acting chief executive Nicodemus Odongo blamed lack of accessibility, communication barriers and limited resources for the poor distribution of positions.
NSSF management blamed political interference, rampant during Kanu days where directives were given on who should be employed.
The management said the historic composition of employees recruited before the new NSSF Act still stands as one cannot terminate their services unless on disciplinary grounds.
Fund Corporate Affairs manager Dr Christopher Khisa said the management had let natural attrition take its course.
“Political interference was too much sometimes but the number has been reducing as more employees leave either after retiring or from natural attrition,” Khisa told the committee.