Laikipia county lays off 176 employees in cost-cutting move

Laikipia County is set to lay off 176 staff members who have been declared redundant in a move the county says is geared reducing the wage bill.

The county’s wage bill stood at 58 percent against the 35 percent recommended by the Public Finance Management Act 2012.

Acting County Secretary Karanja Njora said the devolved unit’s top leadership risked being jailed for failing to comply with the Public Finance Management Act of 2012.

Those set to go home include messengers, clerks, typists and switch-board operators whose jobs have been rendered redundant by emerging technologies.

They had received a general redundancy notice dated January 8, 2020.

The lay offs came following an audit report of August 2019 which revealed that a majority of employees could not outline their job descriptions despite being on the payroll.

In the audit report which required employees to appear before a committee with their academic papers, over 200 staff  were nabbed for  lack of academic credentials.

The county, according to reports, has been parting with a whooping KSh190.8M in salaries on a monthly basis.

The Governor Ndiritu Muriithi welcomed the audit report saying it would help the county weed out ghost workers.

“Now that we have this audit report out, we will be able to know who is working and who is not. We will remove both ghost and idle workers,” governor Muriithi told his cabinet during a January meeting.