Waiguru says ageing workforce holds lion’s share of government posts as youth lag behind

Kenya’s public service is bloated with an ageing workforce that could be struggling to make use of new technology required to enhance service delivery, a government report has revealed.

According to the draft report prepared by the inter-governmental steering committee for the capacity assessment and rationalisation of the public service programme formed by Planning Cabinet Secretary Ms Anne Waiguru, 31 per cent of civil servants are aged over 50.

The report said 61,503 government workers fall within 50-59 years while those aged between 40-49 are 59,635, accounting for 30 per cent of the workforce.

The increased number of the aging workers is attributed to a new policy introduced by the Grand Coalition government that extended retirement age from 55 to 60 years.
“The high proportion of the civil servants within the 40-49 (30 per cent ) and 50-59 (31 per cent ) age brackets is indicative of an aging workforce,” the report stated.

The report revealed that 25,565 civil servants accounting for 42 per cent of the ageing public servants are working for the national government while 35,938 of those aged over 50 are serving in the county governments.

“The lower youth bracket of 18-29 accounts for 11 per cent (22,476) of the total civil service,” said the report.

The report also indicated that government is struggling with a huge number of unskilled workers who never went beyond primary school but are serving in government.

“Public servants in the older age bracket could be considered for voluntary early retirement or separation to pave way for a younger workforce,” the committee has proposed.

“Security services, social and rehabilitative services, office services, and operations and support services have a total of 20,993 public servants with low professional qualifications in the ‘no education to primary education’ category,” said the report.

However, the report says care must be taken to ensure workers who have acquired skills at work are not laid off before a critical examination of their capabilities.

The report reveals a major shortage of staff with technical know-how in the health sector with a deficit of 16,000 doctors, 108,949 nurses, 32,756 clinical officers and 24,882 medical laboratory technologists.

“Furthermore in the case of doctors, the retention rate is low (85) per cent are below 40 years and consequently the number in public service is comparatively low,” said the report.

According to the report, the public service has 1,860 engineers against a demand of 30,000, according to an African Development Bank survey.

The national government is said to be retaining the majority of technical professionals.

“All the priority skills covered by this study show serious shortage overall and a skewed distribution across counties with a bias towards urban locations, particularly Nairobi,” the report says.

In order to tap quality skills from professionals in technical areas, the committee recommends the introduction of attractive pay packages.

The committee also said that a national masterplan for development of high priority and scarce skills should be prepared and implemented by the national government.