Appointment to public offices remains a thorny issue despite clear stipulations aimed at securing transparency and fair play.

On paper, the Government vouches for open and competitive recruitment of top officials like chief executives of parastatals, directors of departments, university vice-chancellors and others.

In pursuit of this, the Public Service Commission or respective parastatal boards routinely advertise for vacant positions and interview qualified candidates. For a good measure, some parastatals out-source the recruitment to professional agencies.

Ultimately, the best three candidates are presented to the responsible minister for eventual appointment. But herein lies the problem.

This week, Parliament has had to deal with two cases that illustrate the gravity of the matter. The first is the appointment of the director of the Kenya Medical Training College and the second is the ongoing recruitment of a chief executive for Kenya Airports Authority, both of which have raised eyebrows with the contention being that the processes were not fair.

These are just but a few cases. In all these, the point being made is that a noble process has been violated to achieve partisan political interests. Ministers appoint their cronies to key jobs within their portfolios without shame.

And this has far-reaching ramifications in public service delivery. Inter alia, it promotes a culture of patronage and impunity, reinforces ethnicity, kills meritocracy and undermines the principle of performance contracting. Conversely, it elicits resentment from the public leading to disenchantment.

Paradoxically, the same ministers who manipulate appointments serve in a government that spearheads performance contracting, where public officials are judged on the basis of deliverables, not personal loyalties. When individuals influence appointment to key positions, then the campaign to reform public service to improve service delivery is rendered nugatory.

Parliament and other watchdog institutions must stop this practice and ensure ministers do not misuse their powers to give plum jobs to their loyalists.