Kisii County Gov’t Cuts 740 Workers’ Pay After Headcount Failure
The government of Kisii County in 2022 carried out an employee headcount with the intention of locating any “ghost workers” in the organization’s staff and terminating their employment. In order to accomplish this, they demanded that all of its staff members congregate at a specific area and provide the relevant official documentation. Surprisingly, 740 personnel from various departments, including health, education, agriculture, and administration, did not show up for this verification process. These employees represented a wide range of positions.
The county government has decided to withhold their pay as a consequence of their absence, pending a suitable explanation for their nonattendance, in the hope that they will return to work. This important staff gathering was held at the Kisii Agricultural Training Institute as it was designated as the location for the event. Representatives from the Institute of Human Resource Management in Kenya (IHRM) and an independent auditing firm were given the responsibility of checking the documents.
Certificates of completion from educational institutions, letters of employment, identification cards, and any other relevant papers were among the documents that were investigated. Notably, County Secretary and Head of the Public Service James Ntabo sent out a communication on September 22nd, 2023. In this letter, he explained that several of the staff members who had not been seen recently had either voluntarily resigned their positions, moved away, passed away, or reached the end of their work contracts.
Mr. Ntabo took corrective action by giving instructions to the director of human resources for the county to immediately stop paying them salaries until further notice.
