Nyamira County Government suspended more than 1,000 workers on claims that they offered bribes to land the jobs.
Fear gripped the county at the beginning of May after the workers missed their April salary following reports that ghost employees had been unearthed in the county.
Confirming the suspension, the county's governor John Nyagarama revealed that the high wage bill was slowing down the Nyamira's development budget.
“We are not going back on our decision to sack people who are irregularly employed because we are required to ensure our county is developed and that cannot happen with an overburdened wage bill,” he stated.
It was also established that most of the affected individuals were officers in the enforcement department and some senior support staff.
Nyagarama further sent a warning to the officials involved in the irregular hiring promising to weed them out as well.
“Whoever was employed in a way that did not follow the law should be considered a ghost worker and be sacked. We will ensure those behind the irregular and unprocedural employments also face the consequences,” he stated.
The governor also disclosed that most of the workers had paid a bribe amounting to Ksh100,000.
Part of the county's payroll were boda-boda operators and M-Pesa agents.
The county also performed a head count of its employees but the results have not been released yet.
