By Robert Nyasato
Nyamira County has initiated the process of establishing a County Public Service Board (CPSB) after operating for nearly a year without a functional human resource management body.
On Thursday, the County Assembly of Nyamira vetted four nominees proposed to serve on a selection panel mandated to recruit members of the CPSB.
The nominees appeared before the Assembly’s Appointments Committee chaired by Speaker Thadeus Nyabaro.
The four nominees are Edwin Makori, proposed as chairperson, alongside members Barnabas Ongondo, Victorinah Makori and Duke Gichana.
They were nominated by Governor Amos Nyaribo.
If approved by the Assembly, Governor Nyaribo will formally appoint them as the Selection Panel responsible for recruiting members of the CPSB.
The public vetting exercise was overseen by Assembly Clerk Duke Onyari.
The Appointments Committee is expected to table its report before the House, after which Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) will vote to either approve or reject the nominees.
The CPSB is a six-member constitutional body mandated to establish or abolish county public offices, recruit and remunerate county staff, and manage promotions, deployments and disciplinary processes within the county public service.
Members of the board, including the chief executive officer, are competitively appointed by the governor with the approval of the County Assembly and serve a single, non-renewable six-year term.
The law requires that a selection panel be constituted at least 60 days before the expiry of a sitting board’s term to facilitate the recruitment of a new team.
The manner in which previous CPSB appointments were made—without reference to the County Assembly—was among the issues cited during Governor Nyaribo’s recent impeachment by the Assembly.
However, the impeachment was overturned by the Senate on procedural grounds.
Political observers view the vetting exercise as a sign of thawing relations between the Executive and the Assembly following months of tension, with both arms appearing keen to move the county forward.
Among the nominees, Makori is an accomplished. accountant, Gichana is a lawyer representing the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), Ongondo represents trade unions, while Victorinah Makori was nominated to represent workers.