State to fire senior officers aged over 60

The government is set to terminate the services of at least 392 senior officers still serving after attaining the mandatory retirement age in public service.

In a letter to the Public Service Commission (PSC) chairperson Antony Muchiri dated February 23, Jumwa directed that the services of all officers who have attained retirement age be terminated with immediate effect.

While also expressing concern over the rise in the number of officers requesting for an extension of services upon attaining mandatory retirement age, Jumwa directed PSC to reject all such cases effective from the date of the letter. “However, it has come to the attention of the Ministry responsible for Public Service that Public Officers who have attained the mandatory age as provided under the Public Service Commission Act are making numerous appeals to the Commission for unjustified extension,” Jumwa says in the letter.

She goes on to state, “The purpose of this letter is that all extension review cases be suspended and any existing cases be revoked to enable proper legislations and succession management guidelines to be implemented across the Public Service.”

Though Jumwa did not indicate the cadre of officers affected by her directive, sources at the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) intimated to the People Daily that most of the officers retained by the government are in the ranks of Regional Commissioners, Directors, Secretaries and Principal Administrative Secretaries among others.

Jumwa’s directive comes at a time reports indicate that the public sector is facing a reality check as its ageing workforce exits without passing on critical skills to younger workers, exposing the sector to disruptions.

Though many public-sector institutions have a skills transfer policy, many ministries, departments and state-owned enterprises have struggled to implement it.

The ageing workforce has been exposing the public sector to possible loss of key skill sets – a scenario that has been forcing some entities to hold onto retiring employees longer.

PSC has over the years faced succession management challenges partly due to stagnation of its officers in one pay grade for so long.  A 2016 audit had showed that 35 percent of the employees in national government were aged between 51 and 60 years while 52 per cent were above 46 years.

Succession management

In 2017, PSC attempted to address the crisis in succession management, by putting in place a succession planning management strategy that sought to tackle challenges such as an ageing workforce and skills flight and brain drain, particularly in the professional and technical areas.

PSC Chief Executive Simon Rotich says the main objective of the strategy was to initiate a proactive planning process by developing a pool of potential successors and encouraging a culture that supports knowledge transfer and employee development.

The government had in 2009 reviewed the mandatory retirement age from 55 to 60 years in a bid to reduce the increase of the number of new pensioners as well as give the government ample time to programme for resources to fund the new pension scheme.

Under the scheme, announced by then Public Service Minister Dalmas Otieno, persons with disabilities were allowed to work up to the age of 65 years if they so wished.

Early retirement was then set at the age of 50 and other areas like retirement in public interest, medical grounds, from the disciplined services or due to abolition of offices was left open.

Under the new pension scheme that came into effect that year, civil servants were required to make a monthly contribution of 7.5 percent from their salaries while the government was to put in 15 percent.

A PSC report for the financial year 2021/2022 indicates the number of Kenya’s public workforce had increased by 27 percent from 198,119 in the 2017/2018 financial year to 252,007 in 2021/2022.  “It was not clear what had led to the continued growth of staff numbers against the functions even with continued deployment and uptake of technology at the workplace,” the report states.

Over the same period, Statutory Commissions and Authorities recorded a growth of 21 percent while Public Universities recorded a decline of nine percent of the staff over the five-year period from 29,501 in 2017/2018 financial year to 26,848 in 2020/2021.

Since 2014, the number of staff working in County governments has risen exponentially over time by 31 percent from 69,120 officers to the current 99,628.