Nyeri County government has allocated Sh100 million in the 2019-20 budget to early retirement package for county workers aged 50 and above.
Nyeri county Governor Mutahi Kahiga, while signing the 2019-20 budget in his office on Friday said the early retirement would be voluntary and adding that the aim is to bring down the wage bill.
“I may not give you the number but if we had all the resources and if all things work out, we would be able to lay off about 959 employees,” the governor said.
He said many of the civil servants expected to volunteer are those inherited from the national government after the devolution was adopted.
“Their pension is with the Pensions Department and what we as a county are able to give is a golden handshake,” the governor added.
The county is however still in talks with the Pensions Department and the Treasury to ensure those that volunteer will get their package as expected.
Kahiga said this was meant to bring down the county wage bill as most employees aged above 50 are in the topmost job groups.
He said the county spends about 52 per cent of its budget on operations and maintenance and the intention is to bring it to 35 per cent as recommended by law.
The total county budget is estimated at Sh7.8 billion. The recurrent expenditure is Sh5.3 billion which is 67.92 per cent of the total county budget.
Of this amount, the allocation for personal emolument is Sh3.5 billion, which is 45 per cent of the total budget and far above the recommended 35 per cent.
The County Development expenditure estimate is at Sh2.5 billion representing 32.08 per cent of the total budget.
