County staff to be sacked after biometric registration, Francis Atwoli claims
Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli addresses shop stewards at the organisation's headquarters in Nairobi on July 20, 2014. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Francis Atwoli alleged the digital registration is aimed at “sacking employees through backdoor.”
- Mr Atwoli said Cotu is against the registration as most Kenyans lost their original documents during the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
The Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) has claimed the government is using the biometric registration process as a disguise to sack public servants, especially county government employees.
Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli alleged the digital registration is aimed at “sacking employees through backdoor.”
Mr Atwoli said in a statement Wednesday that the government has digital records of all its employees kept by individual departments.
“It has been the duty of the personnel officer in charge of individual department to inform the … Ministry and Treasury on reported retirements of staffs or deaths and immediately such employees removed from government payroll.
UNIONS OPPOSE MOVE
“For someone to come now with the idea of demanding the first appointment letter of a member of staff within the civil service and county government when such records are available in individual files is tantamount to intimidation... and Cotu cannot accept it,” he said.
Mr Atwoli said Cotu is against the registration exercise as most Kenyans lost their original documents during the 2007-2008 post-election violence and have to rely on documents held in banks and in their personal files at workplaces.
The Union of Kenya Civil Servants has also opposed the ongoing biometric registration, saying there were no ghost workers in the national government.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru said the biometric registration of public servants will help weed out ghost workers.
