Dr Evans Kidero when he re-opened the N Market at Mountain View, Nairobi on Tuesday. Photo/DR KIDERO
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 17 – Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero has clarified that he will not sack, but plans to re-deploy an estimated 5,000 workers from City Hall to the National Government to improve efficiency.
Kidero told Capital FM News that the 5,048 workers he plans to discharge were seconded to the county by the National Government and it is in order for him to send them back there.
“The current jobs that match up to number of qualified workers is about 6,000 which means that we have a surplus of 5,000 workers that are unqualified yet they hold jobs, so we want to have them placed in new work stations where they would be of greater efficiency,” He explained.
Kidero added that he is not taking matters into his own hands and promised to work with relevant commissions in the recruitment of a task force as he streamline the City Hall.
“I am ready to work with the Public Service Board as they absorb the 6,000 workers into the County offices and I am in consultations with them to ensure that we get a qualified and efficient workforce,” he added.
Kidero on Monday told the Senate Committee on Devolution that he intended to get rid of 5,048 out of 11,048 workers in an exercise that will cost about Sh6 billion.
He said that the move would reduce the bloated workforce where some are not qualified to hold offices.
“Currently, our workforce stands at 11,048 with 562 of them above 57 years of age 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,” he said.
However, the Senators had cautioned him that he had no authority to sack the workers as they have been seconded to the County by the National Government.
“We are very happy by the way you have handled the staff and assumed that they are already your employees. But if you read the Act, the theory of the law is that you are working towards getting your own employees,” Chairman of the Committee Kipchumba Murkomen said.
Kidero stated that an audit of the workforce brought up numerous irregularities which inflated the wage bill.
“We have people on our payroll who have died still being paid, we have people on our payroll who live abroad, and we found one name appearing five times on the payroll with different ID numbers,” the Governor revealed.
Kidero further indicated that the Central government owes City Hall about Sh47.45 billion, monies which he says if recovered will be used to honour a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) arrived at between the defunct Nairobi City Council and its workers.
Nairobi County will receive Sh9.8 billion from the devolution kitty this year, but the Governor said that Sh6.3 billion will go straight to paying salaries, leaving the County with inadequate funds for development.
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