President William Ruto yesterday revealed that that the state through the respective ministry will introduce a legal and institutional framework that will subject every public worker to a mandatory vetting.
The process, which will be continuous, seeks to enhance accountability and foster the fight against corruption with a keen focus of rooting out ghost workers in the public sector.
The announcement makes to the series of measures he has recently announced on the fight against corruption, a grievance stemming from the youth-led protests that began in June.
Among the previously announced measures was the pronouncement to facilitate expeditious investigation and prosecution of all offenses related to corruption and economic crimes through amendment of the relevant statutes.
These include the Evidence Act and the Criminal Procedure Code, and provide for their determination within six months.
Kenya has a problem of ghost workers who are paid hundreds of millions of shillings thereby inflating the wage bill.
The Public Service Commission in February reported that its review unmasked 20,000 ghost workers in the state payroll.
PSC revealed in the compliance report that there was an excess of 19,467 workers, the highest number – 975 employees, being at State House and New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (New KCC).
Six organisations were found with high disparities with an excess of more than 100 members of staff compared to those recorded in the staff register.
The PSC then noted that the unexplained variance could create room for unauthorised recruitment of staff.
Ministries and state departments accounted for the highest at 12,535, followed by state corporations and SAGAs at 4,558 and 2,287 in public universities.
The 2023 review revealed there were 58 cases at the constitutional commissions and 29 at statutory commissions and authorities.
In further counter measures to tame the runaway corruption, President Ruto said the state will introduce measures to levy a surcharge against any accounting officer or other public officer who has, by their actions or omissions, occasioned loss of public resources in accordance with Articles 226(5), 201(d); and 232(b) of the Constitution.
“We believe that our war on corruption will be significantly boosted by measures to make it easier and safer for citizens and whistle-blowers to come forward and report corruption and economic crimes. For this reason, the reconstituted cabinet shall consider relevant amendments to the Witness Protection Act to enhance appropriate incentives,” he said.
