- Governor Nassir said a human resource review will start Wednesday and all employees will be registered afresh.
- Despite opposition to to the audit by some, Nassir said they will not negotiate on the decision to exorcise ghosts.
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir is now going after the ghost worker he calls "robots" working in county offices.
The county has 5,300 employees and some are phantoms.
Nassir said they will not conduct a headcount of employees but will use biometrics to capture details of all county employees.
Nassir said the human resource review will register afresh all employees.
It will begin Wednesday and be carried out by the Public Service Commission.
“Mombasa has very hardworking people, but there are a few who are there to depend on others. We will not accept the sweat of people to pay salaries to people who do not exist,” he said.
He said that the process will include taking pictures and fingerprints of county employees because “there is a need for us to know each other.
“I have to look at the rights of the people of Mombasa who need to be served, the work of serving them will be done if we will be in a position to know each other, not just sitting and paying people who we do not know where they are,” Nassir said.
Despite the opposition by some employees, Nassir said they will not negotiate on the staff audit.
“We are not going to negotiate on this issue. However, whether your biometrics will be integrated into payroll is a secondary thing.
"For now, the primary issue for us is to know that you are not a robot and that we are paying salaries to human beings and not robots,” Nassir said.
Nassir said on Wednesday he will be the first county employee to be registered afresh, followed by his Deputy Francis Thoya and the current chief officers and other staff in the governor’s office.
In case the funds from the national government are delayed, even for 60 days, our people will be paid their salaries on timeGovernor Abdulswamad Nassir
Nassir spoke during the signing of an MoU between the county government and the Kenya Commercial Bank, which aims at solving the perennial salary problem.
He said their plan of cash flow support programme with the bank is to ensure that whenever there is a delay in the allocation of funds from the National Treasury, the staff of Mombasa county will be paid their salaries without delay.
“On behalf of the people of Mombasa, in case the funds from the national government are delayed, even for 60 days, our people will be paid their salaries on time,” he said.
For a long time, there have been concerns over delayed salaries and at the beginning of December, health workers threatened to go on strike over two-month unpaid salaries.
However, Nassir said that in the 90 days he has been in the office, they have been able to pay three months’ salary in full and part of the statutory deductions.
He said that the programme with KCB will also help them to be paying the county employees’ salaries by the 25th of every month.
“On behalf of the Mombasa people, we will also negotiate with KCB bank to issue loans to county employees and the county government will be their guarantor. This week, our people will receive their one-month salary for November," he said.
Nassir said his government will ensure the casuals who have been working for the county for a long time are employed.
Kenya Commercial Bank CEO Paul Russo said they were the only bank that was supporting paying county salaries between April and August when everybody else had stopped because they feared that they would not be paid.
“When I met with the governor to have this partnership discussion, I did not know we will do it as fast as we have. I want to assure you that you have a solid partner and we are going to ensure that we work with you because we have the best leadership,” he said.
He said that over and above the salaries, the partnership opens the opportunity for them to deliver meaningful solutions to county staff whether it is personal banking, extending to the issue of personal lending and car loans.
“I am a strong advocate of people building themselves and buying something meaningful, not just cars but also plots, for that we will partner with the county to deliver that,” he said.
KMPDU national chairperson Abidhan Mwachi said that Mombasa has had 42 strike notices in the last 10 years, which were a result of salary delays.
“It is not something that I can say with a smile on my face, it is something that I say with grief because it’s was a matter of life and death whenever we are pushed to such an edge,” he said.
He said that they have been holding meetings with the county officials, but all in vain and in the last meeting which took place last week, they ended the meeting without a solution.
Likoni MP Mishi Mboko called upon the government to also consider the promotion of county employees saying it should not be something of who you know.
“I have received concerns from people who have worked for a long time without promotion, therefore let us promote according to merit.
"People should be promoted on an equal basis. Let it not be that others are taken to another grade and others remain stagnant because they do not have godfathers,” she said.
(Edited by V. Graham)