The Ministry of Public Service Cabinet Secretary has announced plans to launch biometric registration for all public service workers to reduce incidences of ghost workers. The CS expressed the regret that despite Kenya being a religious and pious country, there still exists unscrupulous individuals who are causing the country to lag.

“As we accelerate our prayers to exorcise ghosts, the Ministry of Public Service will embark on biometric registration of all the 900,000 of us who are paid by the taxpayers, including (in the) counties,” affirmed CS Kuria.

“As a country that is very religious, we are not doing very well in chasing away ghosts. This country is full of ghosts. We are paying ghost civil servants, ghost teachers. We are spending capitation on ghost students. We are sending cash transfers to ghost elderly citizens.”

Additionally, the CS asserted that plans were underway to conduct a payroll audit.

This comes after, last month, the Public Service Commission (PSC) flagged 19,467 ghost workers from different government departments and agencies.

The PSC attributed the upsurge in ghost workers to bloated wage bills, underutilization of staff, and strained workplace facilities.