Kenyan County governments have a bloated workforce, audit reveals

A survey conducted in the 47 counties has revealed that the devolved units are overstaffed.

But despite the finding by the Capacity Assessment and Rationalisation of the Public Service Programme (Carps), the Council of Governors (CoG) has ruled out any retrenchment of workers, saying counties cannot raise the Sh180 billion required to send the excess workers home.

Council Chairman Peter Munya yesterday said it had been agreed that counties would not lay-off excess workers who were discovered on completion of the evaluation exercise.

Mr Munya, who is also the Meru governor, said instead of sending the workers home, counties were considering other options, including retraining and reposting them.

"Counties do not have any money to lay off excess workers. It is up to the national government to give us the way forward because counties cannot carry the burden," he said.

According to an official at CoG who has seen the Carps document, county governments alone have in excess of 25,000 employees, whom the assessment proposes should be offloaded.

The official said the report was still being discussed at the CoG level before a final decision is made.

"The council is seized of the matter and is in the process of preparing a response on the recommendations made. This exercise was also conducted on other public employees," said the official.

But yesterday, Munya was categorical that counties could not afford  theSh180 billion to send employees home.

He also said since more functions were to be transferred to the counties, they would need more staff for the additional duties.

He warned the national government against dictating how many staff they should employ, saying every county had its own unique needs, circumstances and challenges.

Further, Munya said counties do not want to be 'micro-managed' by the national government.

He said mobility of county staff must not be controlled by the national government.

"We have a situation where a county worker has to be cleared by the Devolution ministry and Foreign Affairs to travel. That is not tenable in the new Kenya," Munya complained.

In addition, Munya said governors would resist any attempt by the national government to control a pension scheme for county government workers.

He said the county government will not join a pension scheme that is run by the national government.

Counties, Munya said, are constitutionally autonomous units and so should be in charge of their workers' pensions.

Addressing chairpersons of county public service boards at a Meru hotel, Munya conceded there had been some bickering on who, between the national government and the CoG, should be in charge of the workers' pensions.

"Controlling money is very attractive in very many ways, some of it positive, some of it not so positive," he said.