MPs wants other entities to compete with KPLC to leverage on their monopolistic services , dealings and administrative issues
Ministry of Energy and Petroleum as well as KPLC fights back the claims of fault meters, illegal connectivity and tribalism on human resources
Kenya Power and Lighting Company [KPLC] was on yesterday, Tuesday 6th August, put on task after failing to explain why they don’t follow human resource procedures while recruiting their staffs, particularly, presence of non-engineers operating at Turkana Wind Power
Appearing before the Mwala MP led National Assembly Committee on Energy and Petroleum, Eng Vincent Musyoka, the committee sought KPLC’s CEO Eng Joseph Siror to explain the circumstances that led to appointing of 54 individuals holding engineering cadres while are not registered members of the engineers board of kenya
Out of 74 staffs on permanent and pensionable terms, deployed at the said project, 54 of them hold engineering positions without being members of their professional body that demands such job description in line with the laid down requirements for human resource policies and procedures
“When you put the advert on daily newspapers, it was clearly stated that one of the requirement for the suitability of the candidate is being a member of engineers board of Kenya.
Explain to Honourable Members of Parliament when did you change this and why didn’t you re-advertise again to inform Kenyans that it was an optional to be an engineer for someone to secure those lucrative positions? Eng Vincent Musyoka hit hard the KPLC CEO Eng Joseph Siror
While Chepalungu legislator Victor Koech seemed to be defending Dr Siror by resurfacing the story of appointed CS for Mining Hassan Joho who had D minus at KCSE, he nonetheless, sought answers from KPLC management to tell the country when did the technical position started being filed by non technicians
Gem MP Elisha Odhiambo demanded Mr Siror with the help of Principal Secretary for state department on Energy and Petroleum Alex Wachira to adduce five engineers whom were recruited against their job description, where the dual requested until Thursday 8th August, 2024 to bring the names
The CEO angered lawmakers when he alluded that the appointments were done internally and that they did not consider membership as one of the key requirement after assessing individuals whom he claimed were performing similar job description for several years very excellently before being converted into permanent and pensionable basis
“These appointments were done internally and registration doesn’t mean the merit of getting a job. There are so many registered lawyers and doctores but are not working. We used generic advert and picked internal staffs who had skills of engineering even though were not members of the board,” Siror defended the entity
Additionally Turkana Woman Representative Cecilia Ngitit tabled a petition from her constituents citing instances of gross discrimination and violations of constitution where people from her county do not secure permanent jobs despite many of them having worked over seven years
Ngitit become annoyed when the CEO termed her petition as baseless claiming that 39 workers at the site comes from dominant community, although failed to table their names in order to convince lawmakers who turned against him demanding their details come tomorrow
“I am very irked by the way KPLC is taking Turkana people for granted. The document I have do not have any permanently employed staff from my community. I have the names of people who have been contracted for the last seven years and were never confirmed yet you hire people from neighbouring counties! County MP Charged
She said that there are workers who ate highly qualified including engineers but the management is skewed can’t employ them to top level management and even middle level only contracts and sub ordinate staffs
Backing the Ministry, PS Wachira also termed MP’s claims as false, maintaining that 39 out of the 74 staffs whom were recruited on PnP terms comes from the community [Turkana]
Embakasi South lawmaker Musili Mawathe warned the KPLC management that they will face the wrath of Gen-Zs if they cant be transparent by telling Kenyans how they omitted the adverts requirements and hired without following due procedures