National Assembly Education committee rejects Uhuru TSC nominees

The National Assembly Education committee has rejected the President Kenyatta six nominees for appointment to the Teachers Service Commission.

The committee has recommended a fresh advertisement for all the six positions, stating that the list failed to meet several requirements.

It is the third time Parliament is rejecting the name of Kiragu wa Magochi nominated by the President for the position of the chairperson of the commission.

There has been controversy on Mr Magochi’s nomination over other candidates for the post with some arguing that he was unfairly picked.

Mr Magochi is currently the acting Education Secretary in charge of coordination and supervision of operations of directorates in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The other five names rejected by the House committee are Albert Ekirapa, Jacinta Kapiyo, William Mwita Makubo, James Muthuri Nkoroi and Mwijuma Mwinyipembe.

All the six nominees appeared before the 28-member Education committee last week for vetting in line with requirements under the Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Act, 2011. The names were submitted to the committee by National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi after receiving the list from the President.

Among others, the committee says a list of seven names for the position of chairperson was forwarded to the President in contravention of Section 8 (d) of the TSC Act which stipulates that a list of three names.

MASS EXODUS

The team chaired by Murang’a County MP Ms Sabina Chege observes that the list presented to Parliament lacks a mix of professionals with all the nominees having a background in education.

The committee observed that five out of the six nominees were employees of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology indicating a mass exodus of senior officials from the Ministry to TSC.

Further, it notes that the nominees presented do not depict transitional leadership since a majority of them are over 55 years of age.

In the report tabled before the National Assembly yesterday, the team says special interest groups like persons with disabilities were not considered despite being in the list forwarded to the President and further, that it did not meet the constitutional requirement of regional balance.

The selection panel that submitted names of the nominees to the President ranked Mr Magochi second with a score of 78.1 per cent from the leading candidate-Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development director Dr Lydia Nzomo who scored 80.3 per cent.

The third candidate, Prof George Imbanga Godia, had 77.4 points. Dr Nzomo was, however, not on the list submitted to Parliament by the President.

Mr Magochi has been rejected twice by Parliament, but was cleared by a High Court ruling on account that he was eligible for a second interview. The Court ruled that the previous rejection by the National Assembly was not in itself a bar to subsequent application.

FRESH PANEL

The National Assembly committee has recommended that a fresh selection panel be constituted as per the TSC Act to conduct a fresh appointment exercise.

Interviews for members of the commission were conducted in August after 13 names were recommended for five vacancies.

Mr Mwinyipembe who had initially been a member of the selection panel scored 72.6 points and was ranked first overall for the position of member to the teachers’ commission. Ms Kapiyo came fourth with 69.4 points, Mr Ekirapa was ninth with 65.1 points while Mr Nkoroi came 12th with 58.6 points.

Mr Makubo ranked last with 44.4 points and did not make it to the final interview. However, his name is among the five forwarded to Parliament for consideration.

The Education committee observes that Mr Makubo’s name was not among the 13 names that were forwarded to the President by the election Panel which contravenes the TSC Act which states that the President shall nominate from the 13 names submitted to him by the panel.

It also says the selection panel displayed bias by allowing Mr Mwinyipembe who was a former fellow panellist to appear for the second interview and ranked him position one overall.