At least 27,284 workers were illegally hired in 41 counties over three years to June 2024, new details show amid revelations that Governors flouted the law in the new hirings, exposing the counties to over-staffing.
The counties hired thousands of workers between the 2021/22 and 2023/24 fiscal years despite lacking recruitment plans or budgets, as shown by special audits on payroll management.
The audits show that during the three years, only six counties did not have a record of adding new employees.
Uasin Gishu County led the pack by employing 3,982 new workers (excluding casuals) during the period, followed by Kitui County, which employed 1,715 workers, Trans Nzoia (1,082), and Turkana (1,054).
“The county executive recruited 3,982 employees during the three financial years. However, it was established that the recruiting departments did not have annual recruitment plans to guide the recruitment.
“The lack of annual recruitment plans can result in either over-staffing, under-staffing, or hiring for roles that do not align with organizational priorities,” Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu says in a special audit on Uasin Gishu County’s payroll management.
Of all the workers employed across 41 counties during the three years, 14.6 percent were recruited in Uasin Gishu, exposing the depth of recruitment in the county whose wage bill averaged 41.7 percent over the three years, against the legal threshold of 35 percent.
The public auditor faults counties for going on a hiring spree without having systems to inform where new workers are needed, or establishing the availability of budgets to absorb them.
This puts the counties at the risk of having excess numbers of staff in some departments while starving others, which affects the delivery of services, the Auditor-General says.
Other counties with high numbers of new hirings during the three years were Bomet (1,046), Nyamira (1,031), Nakuru (985), Nairobi (965), Narok (923), and Laikipia (913), closing the list of top ten counties in terms of numbers of new employees over the three years.
“The recruitment process revealed several weaknesses, including instances where recruitments were done without advertisements being made, recruitment for individuals who had not applied for the advertised positions, and confirming budget availability after advertisements for recruitment are published,” Ms Gathungu said about Narok County.
The practices, the public auditor warns, undermine transparency, fairness, and compliance with recruitment procedures, and risk enabling the hiring of unqualified or ineligible individuals, who end up straining counties’ financial resources.
The 10 counties with the highest numbers of new employees during the three years, all of which had more than 900 new workers each, employed 13,696 workers collectively, which was more than half of the new employees across the 41 devolved units.
In Embu, the public auditor revealed that the Governor unconstitutionally established offices of the county chaplain and health advisor to the governor in breach of the law. In total, the county hired 775 new workers during the three years.
“Several positions filled in 2022, 2023, and 2O24 without the County Human Resource Management Advisory Committee's consideration and recommendation of requests for recruitment from departments,” she said.
The Auditor-General also revealed that Lamu County employed 100 employees without any documented job needs assessment, while 16 were employed before the jobs were advertised.
In Samburu, where 746 new employees were hired during the three years, the special audit established that 26 staff were recruited in excess of those advertised across some six cadres, while another 192 were handpicked for hiring and paid Sh47.7 million during the three years.
“The recruitment, selection, and appointments of the newly established Governors Delivery Unit cost the County Executive Sh4,805,820. The positions were not incorporated in the approved organization structure and staffing for the Samburu County Executive of November 2022,” the Auditor-General said.
