The East African Community Council of Ministers has finally reinstalled the recruitment process and granted South Sudan more slots in affirmative action.
In their sitting in Arusha, Tanzania, on Tuesday, the Chairperson of the Council, who also serves as the Cabinet Secretary of the Republic of Kenya, Adan Mohamed, said the shortlisted candidates would soon be called for interviews.
Adan disclosed that South Sudan was allocated 11 vacant slots out of the 15 positions as their affirmative action for the positions that were yet to be shortlisted.
He said the interviews should start as soon as possible.
This was after the resolution made at the 41st meeting of the council of ministers.
“To ensure equitability among partner states in the recruitment process, the Cabinet Secretary disclosed that 11 of the vacant slots would be reserved for the Republic of South Sudan; the youngest member of the Community,” the statement read in part.
The ministers further resolved that the positions that had only one shortlisted candidate from a partner state should be reviewed and open for competition. They further agreed that the adverts which were too restrictive should be reviewed so that many candidates could apply for them.
“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.”
The Secretariat will re-advertise positions where one state dominated the contested positions and where one candidate had been shortlisted and direct them to continue with the recruitment of all positions not affected by the directives in January 2022.
The council further asked the partner states to disburse their contributions for the final year 2021–2022 according to the EAC Finance Rules and Regulations (2012) to execute the approved budget. They also called for the remittance of arrears by partner states according to the disbursement plans.
Recruitment row
Late last month, the EAC Council of Ministers agreed to resolve the concern over the recruitment process by November in the sitting of the ministers responsible for the East African Community.
The recruitment into the community was halted after South Sudanese legislators in EALA protested the recruitment.
They wrote a letter to the EAC Secretariat after they discovered that only 14 applicants from South Sudan were shortlisted.
The EAC General Secretary wrote back promising them affirmative action, which the South Sudanese disputed as politically motivated.
Recruitment suspended
The Council of Ministers suspended the recruitment over alleged unfair treatment of citizens from Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda and promised to investigate allegations of irregularities and corruption claimed by selected partner states.
The decision was welcomed by South Sudan and members of partner states.
Dr Anne Itto, a member of parliament at the EALA, said the country had the least number of shortlisted applicants out of over 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, to ask if this suspension of recruitment is to our advantage.
“If we have good people sitting here, they are going to be checking everything and making sure that we are not only treated fairly but also our affirmative action. This is what we are fighting for,” Dr Itto said.
Kenedy Mukulia said suspending the recruitment was rightfully done because what happened was not in the interest of the community.
Another lawmaker, Kim Gai, vowed that they would continue to fight for transparency and accountability in the regional bloc till 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.
Neglected
Six out of the nine South Sudan Chapter members supported the decision to halt the recruitment, therefore, resulting in the ousting of the former chairperson of the Chapter, Thomas Dut Gatkek.
The chapter elected Anne Itto Leonardo as its new chairperson to replace the ousted Gatkek. The chapter also decided to form a three-member committee to address the issue by holding discussions with the EAC General Secretary, Peter Mathuki.
The committee was to include the former and incumbent chapter chairpersons and the Undersecretary of the Ministry of East African Affairs, Andrea Aguer Ariik Malueth.
The regional bloc
The East African Community is an organ of the Council of Ministers which provides recommendations to the council.
The secretariat advertised positions that were to be filled by partner states nearly five months ago to bridge the gap between the 52 employees between July and November next year.