Kisii Governor Simba Arati, on Saturday, September 3, waged war against the county's ghost workers and senior officials who abated the scam.
Speaking to the press, the county boss revealed that his initial headcount of county workers, including drivers, had showed that 861 individuals were pocketing monthly salaries without carrying out the work.
He noted that the figure incorporated both ghost workers and their legitimate but incompetent counterparts.
"We have 861 Ghost workers and my Senator kept talking about it. I wanted to see if it was true. The law is clear on ghost workers - people who are not working.
"You cannot earn money if you are not working. You will earn from the sweat or you must earn from where you have planted," the Governor stated.
In his directive, Arati noted that he had reached out to relevant institutions, which include the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), to go after both the workers and their bosses.
"Anybody who has not been working at the County and have been earning a salary, we will ask responsible institutions to surcharge such people. Surcharge their seniors who have abated such crime," he added.
On August 31, Arati kicked off the process to weed out ghost workers by head-counting drivers from the county's transport and finance department.
At the time, the Governor noted that the Kisii County government has been paying 256 drivers against the 82 vehicles available.
“I expected to see 256 drivers who I called here, this is sickening, how else can we explain? are some drivers passengers in those vehicles?” the governor wondered at the time
The governor also noted that the ghost drivers have been drawing salaries meant for development projects and other services from the county government.
Other counties also followed suit including Homa Bay's Gladys Wanga who sent eight senior staff members on compulsory leave to allow for an independent audit.
In Bungoma, Kenneth Lusaka established a committee to weed out ghost workers he claimed had infiltrated the system towards the end of his predecessor Wycliffe Wangamati's regime.
