Elected leaders and senior government officials have been warned against demanding monetary payments from desperate youth in exchange for job opportunities.
Nominated Member of Parliament, MP Bishop Emeritus Jackson Kosgei, said it was despicable for leaders and senior government employees to ask for money from desperate job seekers to secure employment.
Bishop Kosgei said demanding Sh500,000 to Sh600,000 from job seekers to be employed as a teacher or forcing parents to sell land to buy a job for a child in the police force or the military was tantamount to robbing the poor.
“Let us not extort the poor and instead be fair to all, irrespective of their status in life,” said the cleric.
Speaking during a church function at Chepkanga A.I.C. in Uasin Gishu county, the nominated MP representing persons with disabilities castigated the behaviour of leaders who dish out employment letters for kickbacks, warning the culprits, “Your time to be exposed is coming.”
“I am appealing from the pulpit today to leaders and senior government officials and not for political expediency, and it is not about being elected but doing justice for all Kenyans, irrespective of their background,” stressed Bishop Kosgei.
The MP made a passionate appeal to those who will be responsible for the forthcoming police recruitment exercise between July and December to give a fair chance to all those seeking opportunities in the police service without demanding anything in return.
“Let there be fairness; let those who qualify do so through merit and not because they have parted with money to be considered; don’t steal from the poor; conduct the recruitment without asking for bribes,” he implored.
Bishop Kosgei at the same time called on Lands Principal Secretary Nixon Korir to protect poor landowners from being deprived of their property by the elite because they have been unable to clear fees to acquire title deeds.
Some poor families in Uasin Gishu whose parents were unable to pay the requisite fees to acquire title deeds for their farms risk losing their land to unscrupulous elites who take advantage of the predicament of the families to transfer the properties to themselves illegally.
“Protect the poor and their land from the rich and influential people eyeing to grab the property,” he urged the PS.
By Kiptanui Cherono
