Two County Executive Committee (CEC) members in Mombasa County appointed the same person for positions in two separate boards.
In a Gazette notice dated September 29, 2024, Swaleh Mwalizuma was listed as an appointee in two different departments, a hospital board and a water supply board.
His name first appears in the list of appointees by the County Executive Committee Member for Health as a member of the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital (CGTRH) Board for a period of three years, effective from September 20, 2024.
The same individual was appointed to be a member of the Board of Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company Limited (MOWASSCO) over the same period.
It is unclear whether the double appearance of the name was an oversight or whether the person in question indeed landed two separate jobs.
In January 2024, there was a landmark ruling in the Nyeri Employment and Labour Court, which declared the double employment of a public officer unlawful.
The ruling was made after it was discovered that a lecturer at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology also worked as a part-time board member at Kirinyaga County Assembly Service Board between 2017 and 2022.
President William Ruto also recently addressed the issue of ghost workers in government, saying there were mechanisms in place to eliminate ghost worker payroll fraud.
In addition to implementing the new identification system across all arms of government, including constitutional offices, the President further revealed plans to introduce mandatory continuous vetting of public servants.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission spokesperson Eric Ngumbi believes irregularities in employment in counties are one of the leading ways county officials use to embezzle funds.
Over-employment, which involves hiring ghost workers who do nothing but earn salaries, is also another means of fleecing county coffers, according to EACC. The ghost workers end up sharing their 'ghost salaries' with top officials who hire them.
Another unscrupulous form of malpractice within the county governments is the forging of academic certificates to facilitate the promotion of under-qualified workers.
