Biometric staff count starts, aims to restructure operations

Kilifi deputy governor Mr Kennedy Kamto leading other staff in the county on biometric data count

The county government has launched a biometric registration system to determine the scope of its workers and their qualifications.

Deputy Governor Kennedy Kamto who unveiled the system at the governor's office in Kilifi on Monday, and was the first to be counted yesterday, said the exercise would help the county administration restructure its operations based on the number of workers.

"I term this exercise a noble idea as it will give us the correct data of personnel that we can later apply to plan and discharge our services to the public," said Mr Kamto.

The deputy governor said the exercise would also look at employees' academic qualifications and technical expertise for efficiency in service delivery.

JOINT EXERCISE

"When the county government came to power, we were forced to inherit some workers from the former council and counting of staff using biometric machines will give us the correct number of staff we have and their qualifications," said Kamto.

County Commissioner Albert Kobia said the enumeration of workers in the public service was a joint exercise between the national and county governments and was not targeted at sacking anyone.

Mr Kobia said counting of staff from the national government in the county had already kicked off.

The county commissioner said the enumeration had been planned to cover at least a week using five biometric machines.

"Counting of staff from the national government and counties electronically is a national exercise in which we want to know the number of staff we have and their academic qualifications," said Kobia.

He said the exercise was part of national reforms the Government was trying to put in place in the Civil Service and urged workers to co-operate.

Kobia, however, said the exercise would not include officers under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) or police officers.

"This exercise of counting civil servants currently does not include officers from TSC, teachers in public schools or police officers," he said.