The recruitment row in the East African Community has remained of concern as the year closes with a dragging stalemate.

Although the council of ministers recently decided to grant South Sudan its portion of 11 free positions, it is still clouded with doubts whether this is the lasting solution needed or more is expected in the coming year.

The recruitment row in the EAC started in October after the names of the applicants were shortlisted. That saw only 14 South Sudanese shortlisted.

The South Sudanese legislators in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) protested the recruitment process in a letter addressed to the Secretariat, requesting that they be granted affirmative action.

Affirmative action would mean that they would be granted positions that would not be contested. In an interview with the City Review, Gabriel Alaak Garang, a South Sudanese legislator in EALA, said they were complaining to be granted their quota like other partner states when they joined. He said the promise only came after the shortlisting, thus, prone to doubts.

“They allowed our people to apply and when shortlisting was done, they shortlisted about 14 names and they are competing with people from other countries for those positions, and mostly they are junior positions. We saw this is not right,’’ he said. 

“At this particular moment, it has to go to the council. The council has to approve it. After all, where are those positions that have not been advertised and they are being given to South Sudanese? We thought that this should have been done from the beginning of the process.”

Deng Nhial Gai of the South Sudan chapter said that the number of positions meant for South Sudanese was supposed to be indicated.

 “This is not the time that it should have been done. “The letter is a request by the Secretary-General to the Council of Ministers that South Sudan has requested affirmative action,” she said.

“Do we have a guarantee, an ironclad approval that says these are the positions that are going to be given to South Sudan? Therefore, you enumerate them as to when and how that is going to happen.”

The EALA South Sudan chapter called for other partner states to join them in halting the recruitment process. However, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, and Burundi teamed up to accuse Tanzania and Kenya of taking the lion’s share in the secretariat jobs.

Chapter leader kicked out

Following the quest for fair recruitment and affirmative action in the regional bloc, South Sudan chapter members had differences with six of the nine members, calling for a halt to recruitment.

This led to the ousting of the former chairperson of the chapter, Thomas Dut Gatkek, who was replaced by Dr Anne Itto.

They moved on to decide to form a committee of three members to follow up the case of recruitment with the secretary-general of the EAC.

Dr Anne Itto said the partner states should be properly represented in the East African Community as far as the treaty and recruitment are concerned.

Itto stated that if there is no justice, no equitable distribution of benefits to partner states, then membership in this community is pointless.

‘‘We have the opportunity to influence the way this community runs. We must ensure as MPs that we do oversight and ensure that every partner state is properly represented, but of course, for us, the top of our concern is South Sudan’s benefits from their membership of being in the East African Community. ” 

The committee was to include the undersecretary in the ministry of East African Community affairs, Andrea Aguer Malueth, the former chairperson of the chapter, Thomas Dut Gatkek, and the new chairperson, Dr Anne Itto.

Halting recruitment

In October, the EALA Parliament halted the recruitment process to pause the row and investigate the alleged mistreatment tabled by the four partner states of the regional bloc.

According to the chairperson of the Uganda Chapter, Odongo George Stephen, the Uganda Minister of East African Community Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga, made a wise decision by calling for a halt in recruitment.

“Our position, I think, has been well articulated in the letter that has been sent to the community and that was written by the Minister for EAC Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga,” said Stephen.

This was in line with the EAC’s 1999 treaty that guarantees members of the partner states the right to employment in the Secretariat, which seems to have been overlooked in the case of the South Sudanese.

The four partner states of Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and South Sudan described the bloc as marginalizing instead of granting them their rightful shares. According to Denis Naram of the Uganda Chapter, recruitment was characterized by national interests.

“The current recruitment exercise has been characterized by disproportionate profiling, shortlisting of candidates from some partner states, shortlisting of some candidates without the required qualifications and experience, the conclusion of interviews, and pushing national interests against the interests of the community,” Narama said.

When the council of ministers settled on halting the recruitment, over alleged unfair treatment, the secretary-general of the EAC, Dr Peter Mutuku Mathuki, promised to investigate the irregularities and corruption and see how the secretariat could come up with a solution that would satisfy partner states.

 “I can confirm to you that there has been a commitment and discussion with the council members and they are willing to deal with issues here in the best interest of the community and to the satisfaction of every member of the community,” said Ngoga.

The suspension was welcomed by members of the partner states.

Dr Anne Itto, who replaced Thomas Dut Gatkek, said South Sudan had the least number of shortlisted candidates out of the 300 shortlisted candidates.

“Of slightly over 300 people shortlisted, Tanzania had 83, Kenya had 73, Rwanda and Uganda had 53, Burundi had 35 people shortlisted and South Sudan had only 14. So, asking for the suspension of recruitment is to our advantage. This is what we are fighting for, ” Dr Itto said.

Kim Gai pledged that they would continue to fight for transparency and accountability in the EAC to ensure that the right procedures are followed.

 “And our position is that affirmative action should apply to these 17 institutions, which are headed by the executive director and deputy director,” said Kim.

Affirmative action granted                                

Late last month, the council of Ministers in charge of the East African Community (EAC) resolved that South Sudan would be given eleven (11) positions as their affirmative action.

Adan Mohamed, who is the Chairperson of the East African Council of Ministers, said the decision came as the council discussed the need to reserve positions for South Sudan and other partner states who do not have high chances of competing for roles in the EAC Secretariat.

“We have agreed that 11 roles will be made available for the Republic of South Sudan, above the five that were shortlisted in the ongoing recruitment, so if the five also succeed, they will have eleven plus the five that have successfully been recruited,” Adan said.

He added that interviews would be conducted at the soonest possible time to ensure that the vacant positions are filled.

The council also resolved that positions where some partner states had no shortlisted candidates and those where only one candidate was shortlisted should be re-advertised. The secretariat was directed to re-advertise such positions in January 2022.

 “The meeting noted that it was not tenable for a position to attract only one candidate that meets the requirement, and the others could not be shortlisted,” read the statement after the meeting.

Affirmative action rejected

The South Sudanese members of parliament, instead of accepting affirmative action, expressed dissatisfaction over the eleven (11) positions.

In a video shared by South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), Dr Anne Itto said that the eleven positions did not reflect their requirements as they called for a halt in recruitment. She said they did not only want affirmative action, as the name implies but the application of the quota system in the recruitment process.

“When we moved a motion in the house, it was about the irregularities in the recruitment process of EAC. We wanted a process that utilizes the rules and regulations like the quota system, applied properly, and especially for South Sudan, where we have only four people, ” Dr Itto said, adding that

“Not implementing the quota system means that we have to end up begging for affirmative action.”

She pointed out that they were not sure whether the positions were junior positions or not and thus said accepting the eleven (11) positions would affect South Sudan in a way it could not influence the decision making in the regional bloc.

“These 11 positions are supposed to come from advertised positions, and we don’t know whether these are positions for guards, drivers, cleaners, or what.” “When you end up as a driver or junior staff, it means you have no say in how an institution is run,” she explained.

“If we don’t have people as directors if we don’t have people as secretary generals if we don’t have people working in professional positions; it means that we are not influencing decisions, and, of course, so many things are going on in the EAC.”