Public Service Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia has come out to side with embattled former Othaya MP Mary Wambui over her appointment to the National Employment Authority.
Ms Wambui ran into headwinds after Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani appointed her to as chairperson of the employment authority.
However,CS Kobia would defend Wambui saying that a board is a mixture of skillset and that Wambui would provide some sort of skill and value in the joint decisions.
“If you appoint a 25-year-old to chair a board, they will feel inadequate because they lack experience. And this is not a full-time job, it pays so little,” said Prof Kobia.
Pressed to highlight special skills that Wambui had in management, the Public Service CS evaded the question, instead saying the whole drama was rather a gender bias.
“I did not take it very kindly that Mary Wambui was being dragged into that kind of a conversation that she was not qualified. One, I saw gender issues there. If it was a man, nobody would have talked, ” stated CS Kobia.
Wambui, 69, was blocked from assuming her duties at the employment agency following a petition lodged at the employment court.
Kenya Young Parliamentarians Association who obtained the injunction argued that Ms Wambui lacked the basic skills to head the employment authority board.
According to Section 10 (2) of the National Employment Authority Act, a board chair should have at least seven years of experience in human resource management.