KENYA: Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero says that he intends to sack over 5,000 of staff it inherited from the defunct Nairobi City Council, saying the County Government cannot afford to sustain the huge workforce.
Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero
Kidero disclosed that the county government will require in excess of Sh6 billion to lay off the 5046 workers, as he only requires about 6000 workers from the 11048 that it currently has.
The governor said the bloated workforce at the county government was a hindrance to service delivery hence the decision to lay off.
“Currently, our workforce stands at 11,048 with 562 of them above 57 years and 3,457 are above 50 years. For the County to work effectively, we will need to right-size this workforce by mapping the available jobs to qualified personnel,” Kidero told the Senate’s committee on Devolved Government.
He disclosed that among the staff that could be relieved off duties are the parking attendants, as he disclosed plans to automate the service.
But Kidero’s revelations was immediately challenged with the members of the committee, chaired by Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen warning him that he did not have the authority to sack the employees as they had been seconded to the County by the National Government.
“If you read the Act (Inter-governmental Relations Act), the theory of the law is that you are working towards getting your own employees. The law is that those who will not be absorbed by the county government will be the responsibility of the National Government,” Murkomen said, as other Senators joined in criticising the Governor’s proposal.
Kidero however stood his ground saying that an audit of the workforce had unearthed shocking revelations why the council has been paying salaries to non-existing employees.
“We have people on our payroll who have died still being paid. We have others who live abroad, and we found one name appearing five times on the payroll with different ID numbers,” the Governor revealed.
He said the audit found people on payroll who had no appointment letters or even IDs, saying his Government was keen on removing them from the wage bill.
Kidero disclosed that the county government was owed about Sh47 billion by the National Government, a figure he said he could use to honour a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) arrived at between the defunct Nairobi City Council and its workers, and whose non-payment was the centre of a major strike by the employees.
He said that Sh6.3 billion of the Sh9.8billion that Nairobi County will receive from the devolution kitty this year, will go into paying salaries for workers, leaving very little for development.
Kidero had been summoned by the committee to shed light on the crisis that had hit the county government last week after the staff went on strike paralysing services in institutions formally under the city council.
Devolution Principal Secretary John Konchella told the committee that there were challenges in transfer of functions, but said they were dealing with them to ensure all services that requires to be devolved will be transferred.
Others who appeared before the committee are the Transitional Authority Chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi and the officials of County Government Workers Union.
By MOSES NJAGIH, The Standard
