Heads should roll over payroll heist in Public Service

The latest revelations of ghost workers embedded in government payrolls must trigger immediate reforms and invite thorough investigations. They are also a painful reminder that while Kenyans struggle with high taxes, rising food prices and shrinking incomes, a cartel is plundering public resources with astonishing impunity.

The figures are staggering. Billions of shillings that should pay doctors, teachers, police officers, build roads, equip hospitals and educate children are disappearing into fraudulent salaries paid to people who do not exist or are illegally retained on government payrolls. This is economic sabotage against every taxpayer.

For decades, successive governments have promised to clean up public payrolls. Every few years, an audit uncovers thousands of ghost workers. Committees are formed. Reports are written. Arrests are announced. Headlines dominate the news cycle. Then silence follows until the next audit exposes an even bigger scandal. The ghosts never seem to disappear—they simply change addresses.

President Ruto has once again ordered investigations and sweeping reforms. While the directive is welcome, Kenyans have every reason to be sceptical. They have heard similar promises from previous administrations. Without visible prosecutions, asset recovery and institutional reforms, these directives risk becoming yet another chapter in Kenya’s long history of anti-corruption rhetoric. More disturbing is the suggestion that payroll fraud begins long before salaries are processed.

If fictitious employees are being approved during recruitment, then the problem extends beyond payroll departments to the very institutions entrusted with safeguarding public service integrity. Fraud of this magnitude cannot occur through clerical mistakes.

It requires collusion involving multiple offices, weak oversight and deliberate abuse of authority. The greatest tragedy is that the victims are ordinary citizens. Every shilling stolen through ghost workers translates into fewer medicines in hospitals, overcrowded classrooms, stalled development projects and delayed salaries for genuine public servants. Honest civil servants also suffer because public confidence in government institutions continues to erode.

Kenya does not lack laws or investigative agencies. It has the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Auditor-General and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. What has been lacking is the political will to pursue influential individuals behind these criminal networks to their logical conclusion.

This scandal should mark a turning point rather than another routine audit. Every ghost worker must be identified, every fraudulent payment recovered where possible, and every official responsible—regardless of rank or political connections—prosecuted publicly and decisively. Institutions that repeatedly fail to safeguard public funds must also be held accountable.

Ultimately, ghost workers are not invisible. They exist because real people create them, protect them and profit from them.