Reinstated Kakamega revenue staff yet to resume work

The 47 Kakamega revenue officers who were reinstated by the Public Service Commission after being sacked 28 months ago are yet to report for duty.

County public service and administration executive Lawrence Omwaka said they were dissatisfied with the PSC verdict and are still analysing the 47 cases on a case-by-case basis.

“These are people who had serious issues but the PSC went ahead and reinstates them without inviting our people to state our case against them,” Omwaka said on Thursday.

He said that the county will seek a review of the PSC decision for those against whom there is overwhelming evidence.

He said a junior revenue officer in Ikolomani had said that their seniors ask them to deliver Sh8, 000 to them daily while another officer used to pick fish worth Sh500 from a trader in Harambee market daily.

“We discovered that other revenue officers had printed their own fake licences which they issued to traders and collected cash that never reached the county accounts until we introduced security features on our licences,” he said.

Omwaka said that the officers were taken through the laid down procedure where the department found them guilty before forwarding their cases to the finance committee which transmitted its verdict to the county public service board which resolved to sack them.

The 47 officers from Finance department were among the 143 revenue officers who were sent home by former Governor Wycliffe Oparanya’s administration in August 2019 for allegedly underperforming.

In a letter dated December 5, PSC chief executive officer Simon Rotich said the 47 officers whose appeals had been considered and who are yet to attain the retirement age be reinstated to the substantive positions they held before deployment to revenue collection.

He directed the county public service board secretary to compensate the appellants who may have attained retirement age and therefore cannot be reinstated for unfair termination by payment of the equivalent of one-year salary.

“This is to notify you that the commission considered consolidated appeals from 47 revenue officers, found that the same were meritorious, and consequently allowed the same December 5, pursuant to Section 86 (4) of the Public Service Commission Act, 2017 as read together with Regulation 21 of the Public Service Commission (County Appeals Procedures) Regulations, 2022,” the letter reads.

Christine Songa, the secretary County Workers Union Kakamega branch, said while handing over reinstatement letters to the 47 officers on January 18, that most of those who were irregularly sacked were just victims of a witch-hunt by those in top government positions.

“We hope those reinstated, although they should be 54 will be embraced because workers have been discriminated against and hope the current governor will recognise us as part of the government. There are several other cases still pending at different levels,” she said.

Songa said that cases of 11 accountants sent home seven years ago were still pending before the courts and PSC.