ABDIRASHID: The contract killers of devolution-political turnover, job insecurity in the northern counties

Hon Mustafa Abdirashid, MCA for Iftin ward and Deputy Speaker Garissa County Assembly./COURTESY 

When Kenya ushered in devolution in 2013, it promised a new dawn, one that would deliver services closer to the people, create local opportunities, and protect public officers from the suffocating grip of centralized politics. But more than a decade later, in the Northern counties of Garissa, Mandera,Wajir, Isiolo and Marsabit devolution has produced something eerily familiar: fear, purges, and political witch-hunts.

Every electoral cycle comes with a predictable bloodbath.

A new governor takes office, and before the ink dries on the swearing-in papers, public servants brace themselves for mass sackings.

The victims are not just the top brass or political appointees.

They include clerks, ECDE teachers, accountants, health workers, procurement officers, even sweepers anyone perceived to have been hired under or associated with the previous administration.

These terminations are rarely based on performance reviews or legal procedures.

They are driven by suspicion, revenge, and political calculus. And so, the cycle repeats: mass terminations, followed by mass hiring often of cronies, relatives, and political loyalists.

This practice is not just immoral. It is illegal, destabilising, and economically ruinous.

The cost is borne by innocent workers, their families, and ultimately, the people the county governments claim to serve.

A CULTURE OF POLITICAL CLEANSING

In Garissa County alone, the numbers are staggering.

In 2017, over 2,000 county workers were dismissed. In 2022, the purge deepened 3,500 more lost their jobs.

The same pattern played out in Wajir and Mandera. The pretext? restructuring, redundancy, budget constraints. The reality? A crude, tribalised political reward system.

These workers are often let go without due process; no hearings, no audits, no legal justification.

Some are sent home with verbal instructions; others receive ambiguous letters. Most have no recourse, no compensation, no alternative employment.

Their crime? Having been employed under a rival regime, or simply hailing from the “wrong” clan or region.

What this has created is a chilling climate of job insecurity. Public servants are no longer motivated by service, but by survival.

Loyalty to politicians not competence is what keeps one on the payroll.

Institutional memory is wiped out with every new administration. Projects stall. Morale collapses. Systems rot.

WEAPONISING THE COUNTY PAYROLL

The county payroll, instead of being a tool for public service, has become a weapon for political dominance.

Jobs are distributed not based on merit or equity, but as political currency.

Governors use employment to reward campaign financiers, tribal elders, and sycophants.

HR processes are manipulated, recruitment boards are compromised, and staff rationalisation is used to mask nepotism.

In many counties, it is now an open secret that jobs come with conditions: who you campaigned for, which WhatsApp group you were in, what you posted online during elections.

Even cleaners and watchmen are not spared the vetting.

This perversion of employment creates a distorted economy where loyalty to a governor is more valuable than a university degree.

Where meritocracy is mocked, and where every public job becomes a ticking time bomb, waiting for the next election to explode.

LEGAL PROTECTIONS THAT EXIST ONLY ON PAPER

The Constitution of Kenya is unambiguous.

Article 236 protects public officers from victimisation and dismissal without due process.

The County Governments Act, Public Service (Values and Principles) Act, and Employment Act all demand fair administrative action.

But in practice, these protections are meaningless in many counties. County Public Service Boards, which should act independently, have been reduced to political appendages.

Courts are slow, expensive, and inaccessible for most victims. Oversight bodies are toothless or indifferent. And so, injustice continues unchallenged.

THE HUMAN COST

Behind every job termination is a shattered life.

A single mother who can no longer feed her children. A young graduate forced back into hopeless idleness. A sick father who can no longer access health care. A breadwinner now buried in debt.

These are not collateral casualties. They are deliberate victims of a system that has replaced governance with winner-take-all politics. And in a region already struggling with poverty, insecurity, and drought, these terminations push communities further into desperation.

WHAT MUST CHANGE

1. Accountability.

County Assemblies, civil society, and citizens must demand transparency in employment and termination.

Every county should publish staff audits, explain all terminations, and justify hiring patterns.

2. County Public Service Boards must be insulated from political interference.

Their appointments must be vetted by independent panels. Their processes must be digitised and publicly accessible.

3. There must be national intervention.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, EACC, and the Ombudsman should investigate politically motivated sackings and prosecute officials who flout employment law.

4. We must build a political culture that respects institutions.

Governors must realise that public service is not their private empire.

Employees are not pawns. They are citizens with rights, families, and futures.

Finally, public servants must be empowered to resist politicisation. Unionisation, legal awareness, and peer support can help create a more resilient workforce.

CONCLUSION

Devolution was meant to empower counties, not impoverish their citizens through political purges.

When elections become death sentences for public workers, we must ask: what kind of democracy are we building?

The next time a governor is elected, let it not be the beginning of another massacre of dreams.

Let it be the start of continuity, fairness, and service. Because the real killers of devolution are not bad policies but bad politics that treats citizens as expendable, and public service as spoils of war.

The counties were meant to work for the people not against them.

The author is the MCA for Iftin ward and Deputy Speaker Garissa County Aasembly. A columnist and A playwright.