Nairobi’s members of the county assembly (MCAs) have raised concern over the ageing workforce, saying the devolved unit could plunge into a crisis if new recruitments are not done urgently.
The ward representatives said City Hall’s workforce is unable to deliver optimally because of the age factor.
County assembly Deputy Majority Leader Peter Wayoike said the city is currently experiencing shortage of staff at both the sub-county and ward levels due to retirement. This, he said, has been exacerbated by the failure of the Ann Kananu-led government to recruit additional staff.
A 2019 biometric headcount report showed that out of the 11,603 county workers, 5,709 were aged 50 years and above, with only 792 employees below the age of 35, representing only 6.8 per cent of the entire workforce.
A total of 2,712 workers, the report showed, were aged between 55 and 59 years, while those aged between 50 and 54 years were 2,978.
Mr Wanyoike pointed out that the County Public Service Board, the employing agency for the county government, needs to take measures to avert a crisis in the coming years. He further noted that county services can only reach the citizens through the employees both at the headquarters and the sub-county and ward levels.
In September this year, the county’s public service board chairperson Thomas Kasoa warned that a policy needs to be urgently put in place to ensure the county government has a proper human resource succession plan.
Warning that three quarters of the county’s workforce are more than 50 years old, Mr Kasoa said if such a policy is not quickly put in place, then in the next three or four years, City Hall will be in a crisis.
He called for the county government to urgently begin recruitment as more than 400 employees retire from service every year, with the last major recruitment having been done more than 20 years ago.
“If we don’t have a succession plan in terms of human resource then the county government will soon grind to a halt,” Mr Kasoa at the time.
Highrise MCA Kennedy Oyugi called on City Hall and the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) to come out and explain the measures they are putting in place to guarantee seamless service delivery in the sub-counties and wards.
Further, he asked the two entities to outline the steps they have taken to recruit additional staff.
“We also want to know the status of the voluntary early retirement programme that the county government was set to roll out for the aged county workforce,” said Mr Oyugi.
