City Hall to Spend KSh 175 million for Early Retirement of Elderly Staff

City Hall will now spend KSh 175 million towards the early voluntary retirement of its aged staff.

This will also be accompanied by payment of terminal benefits towards the retirees.

This will help the county begin the launch of the ‘early voluntary retirement scheme’ that was developed in 2018 but failed to pick up mainly due to workers fearing that they will not receive their retirement benefit packages.

“Having this amount allocated to retirees will pave way for the rollout of the scheme. Having cleared this will be able to bring in fresh blood,” Assembly Budget Committee Chairman, Robert Mbatia said.

From the records, in the 2018-19 financial year, only 400 of the targeted 731 workers voluntarily retired between July and January 2019.

According to the Nairobi Devolution and Public Service Management CEC Veska Kangogo, very many elderly staff are to retire by June 30, 2021, as the financial year ends.

“We have many old employees set to go home, hence, the allocation. Our administration work is to make sure their benefits are ready so when they retire they have their money,” she said.

As the County government continues grappling with an aging workforce and unskilled personnel, this allocation will help bring fresh young eyes into the County government.

A 2017 report by the Nairobi County Public Service Board showed that out of the 14,000 workers on its payroll, 8,400 had bare minimum education and were unskilled.

Only 240 workers were highly professional. 70% of the workers had a mere minimum education and were above 50 years old.

This scheme will allow effective younger professionals to work at the County government and with that will come high expertise.

By Joy Ngoiri