Revealed: Why inequalities persist in State internship programme

Four years since the government launched a public internship programme for young graduates, glaring inequalities exist in the initiative that sought to solve growing youth unemployment, a new report shows.

From underpayment of some interns and overpayment of others to engaging them longer than the government-approved period, the State programme seems to be blowing hot and cold, a report by the Public Service Commission (PSC) shows.

Some public offices are also engaging young graduates without paying them a stipend, in contravention of PSC guidelines issued in 2016.

According to the report, titled ‘‘Status of the Public Service Compliance with the Values and Principles in Articles 10 and 232 of the Constitution 2018/2019’’, a total of 5,344 benefitted from government internship.

The State paid Sh822 million to interns as stipend in the period under review.

In 2016, PSC dispatched to all government offices a circular stipulating the modalities of hiring and facilitating interns. Under these guidelines, public offices were required to hire interns on a stipend of between Sh10,000 and Sh25,000.

The interns would work for a period of between three months and one year. This was to allow as many young graduates as possible to benefit from this initiative.

Four years on, most public institutions are yet to harmonise their terms of engagement with those of the PSC.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) puts the rate of unemployment in Kenya at 7.4 per cent, a figure that is contested.

Fifty-five per cent of those without gainful jobs are young Kenyans in the 15-34 age bracket.

UNDERPAYMENT

Notably, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been underpaying its interns, exposing them to undue hardships.

Conversely, the Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examinations Board (Kasneb) has been faulted by PSC for overpaying its interns.

Interns at Kasneb are paid between Sh60,000 and Sh75,000 per month, three times higher than the recommended amount.

PSC says that the extra money paid to trainees at the professional body was enough to engage more graduates and, that by overpaying a few interns, more graduates had been denied an opportunity to gain valuable work experience.

At 4,060, State corporations had the most graduate trainees, followed by ministries and State departments at 356. Public universities were third at 326 interns.

State corporations are also the most lucrative to intern for, according to the report, with more than 350 trainees earning Sh25,000 or more, the highest figure for any public office.

Only constitutional commissions, independent offices, statutory commissions and authorities paid all their interns.

VARSITIES UNATTRACTIVE

Public universities are the least attractive to intern for, the report shows. Some 149 interns (45 per cent) in public universities received no stipend in the period under study. Of those on a stipend, 56 received between Sh3,000 and Sh10,000 per month.

The remaining 121 graduates interning with public universities earn between Sh15,000 and 25,000 per month.

More female graduates (54 per cent) than male graduates (46 per cent) benefitted from government internships.

While the Constitution requires public offices to reserve at least 5 per cent of positions for persons living with disabilities (PLWDs), for instance, only 81 (1.5 per cent) interns living with disability were engaged by government offices.

State corporations had the highest number of interns living with some form of disability at 76.

All the 32 public universities had a combined total of five interns that were PLWDs.

Constitutional commissions and independent offices and all State commissions and authorities didn’t have any intern in this category.

EXCEEDED TIME PERIOD

The Public Service Commission requires public offices to engage interns for a period of between three months and one year. Some public offices were found to keep their interns for more than one year.

During this period, 744 interns in 63 public institutions had exceeded the recommended one year internship period, a situation that PSC lamented was denying other graduates an opportunity to acquire relevant job skills.

The PSC survey focused on seven thematic areas including service delivery improvement, transformation and professional ethics in the public service.

Others were good governance, transparency and accountability, equitable allocation of opportunities and resources.

Compliance with the seven areas currently stands at 42 per cent, even as PSC rolls out a new strategic (2019-2024) plan to enhance service delivery in the country.