The Nairobi government is set to hire 800 inspectorate officers and 200 firefighters to replace aging staff and rejuvenate the department.
Acting county secretary Leboo Morintat has written to the county public service board, asking it to hire the officers.
Leboo said in the letter dated October 11 that the security, compliance and disaster management sector is understaffed due to retirement, deaths and dismissals.
"An analysis of the sector staff indicates the last recruitment was done in 1999. Over the years, the sector has experienced natural attrition due to deaths and retirements," reads the letter.
Leboo said that the sector has 2,227 employees and about 1,026 or 46 per cent of the sector's workforce are aged 50 or more.
"This scenario creates a challenge in terms of service delivery since this is a sector that requires a younger and vibrant workforce to cope with rigour of offering services to citizens," he said.
Francis Munyambu, security, compliance and disaster management chief officer, said in a memo that 195 city askaris have retired in the last five years, 87 have died and 10 have been dismissed over disciplinary issues.
"In the next five years, we expect 418 officers to retire from the service. Therefore we recommend recruitment of 800 city constables to enhance operations," he said.
Fire department head Brian Kisali said they have a shortfall of 148 employees as the recommended number of workers is 620.
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