Kiambu County workers have faulted their employer following a requirement that they avail certified copies of either a marriage certificate or an affidavit certificate to the Chief Officer, Administration, and Public Service.
The workers, most of them casuals, have since threatened to go on strike ahead of the submission deadline set for October 31, 2022.
They seek to protest against the requirement which they said is aimed at sacking them.
In a memo dated October 17, 2022, the county staff is required to furnish its employer with certified copies of their National ID cards, birth certificates, tax pin cards, and academic certificates.
The memos reference indicates that its purpose is to update the county staff records.
Ironically, the memo done by the Chief Officer, Administration, and Public Service Charles Gikonyo states that the requirements are intended to ensure the annual updating of staff next of kin details.
Gikonyo intimated that the memo was in compliance with a resolution by the County Public Service Board.
The resolution requires all departmental Assistant Directors, Human Resource Management, and Principal Human Resource Management to ensure annual updating of staff next of kin details.
Kiambu staff annoyed by memo
However, the staff expressed its displeasure with the contents of the memo which they termed as a tactical means by the county to lay them off.
"What will be the fate of those who have had customary marriages and have no marriage certificate? Some of us have no wives because they died while some of us divorced," a county driver who sought anonymity stated.
"There are those of us who are yet to be married, I wonder what will happen because we don't meet the memo requirements," another worker in the planning department stated.
Last week, tens of workers in the finance department were sacked with most of them claiming that they had not received their six months' allowances.
"It's not only inhumane for the county government to sack us at a time when the cost of living is unbearable but also unfair to sack us without notice and via a WhatsApp message," a former worker alluded.
Engineer John Mugwe, the former political advisor to the immediate former Governor James Nyoro decried the unilateral sacking of innocent and deserving workers.
"We need posterity, not austerity. Sacking people who have dependants as an austerity measure is archaic and retrogressive," Mugwe stated.
When he assumed office, Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi committed to rooting out all ghost workers from the county payroll.
He said that the county had lost millions of shillings of its revenue which was being paid to nonexistent staff at the expense of development.
Wamatangi swore not to let even a single cent of county money be lost through corruption and wastage.
"They have nicknamed me Lord Colonizers while others are calling me Mzee Ngamu because I have dried their corruption wells," he said during a meeting at the county headquarters recently.
His government plans to raise the county revenue collection base from the current Ksh2.5 billion to more than Ksh5 billion.
