Nyeri court flags KFS for violating recruitment guidelines in Cadet hiring

The Employment and Labour relations court in Nyeri has found the Kenya Forest Service guilty of violating labour guidelines after wrongfully conducting a recruitment exercise.

The employer was taken to court by 17 petitioners accusing them of violating their employment rights.

John Ngunju and 16 others argued that on February 28, 2023, the KFS advertised the recruitment of a Cadet inspector position through the Dailies without observing the Service’s recruitment laws.

Section 2.16 of the KFS Human resources policy recruitment guidelines provide that the service should not recruit externally without considering existing staff who are qualified for the positions.

The petitioners argued that KFS did not prioritize them and failed to exhaust internal recruitment before seeking to advertise externally.

The 17 petitioners currently serve in the ranks of Range Constables and Corporals retaining the positions for 15 years without any promotion despite obtaining bachelor's degrees and even Master's degrees in various relevant fields.

Justice Onesmus Makau ruled that KFS failed to prove that it conducted internal recruitments before making the vacancy public, but there was also no evidence that the 17 were excluded from applying on account of age or at all.

He further declined to award the petitioners damages or even a mandatory injuction to compel KFS to promote them to Inspector cadet as prayed, since there was no evidence that they would have been automatically promoted upon internal recruitment.

By Lucky Sidney Mulerah.