Kenya to stop paying 12,500 suspected ghost workers

What you need to know:

The salaries of 12,510 public servants who were not registered biometrically will be withheld starting this month.

The salaries of 12,510 public servants will be withheld starting this month after they failed to present themselves for the government’s recent biometric registration meant to cut out ghost workers.

A preliminary report on the exercise, which was launched on September 1, has revealed that 160,012 workers turned up for the exercise out of the expected 172,522 on government payrolls.

Those absent are suspected to either be ghost workers or to be staff who got their jobs without proper qualifications.

The audit involved workers in both county and national governments.

The Inter-Governmental Steering Committee (IGSC), co-chaired by Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru and Kisii County governor James Ongwae, presented the findings in Nairobi on Monday. Ongwae also chairs the Council of Governor’s human resource and social welfare committee.

The IGSC has also ordered both levels of government to retire all officers who are above 60 years of age and are neither State officers nor on contract.

The registration of public servants is part of a larger review of staff and skill levels at both the national and county government levels.