National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) has condemned a move by some re-elected and incoming governors to lay off county staff.
NCIC chairman Francis Ole Kaparo today termed the move as politically motivated as the governors sought to ‘punish’ disloyal county workers who did not vote for them in last general elections.
“The attention of the commission has been drawn to the action by some governors arbitrarily laying off staff on the pretext of ‘cleaning up and restructing’ their counties,” Kaparo said. He further said that their actons were likely to attract legal industrial battles that will stagnate development agenda.
He advised the county chiefs to use legal means to crack the whip if ever there were grounds to justify their actions. “Nobody should take the law into their own hands. These are public officers and they should not be treated unfairly. The restructuring must be in line with Section 65 of the County Government Act,” he said.
This comes even as the national government, the central organisation of trade unions (Cotu) stated that the governors’ actions were illegal and unconstitutional and warned that they will be met with ‘equal force’.
“You will be forced to pay heavily for such evil and illegal action and we will use all available means, including the courts to get justice,” Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli was quoted as saying.
This followed incidents where governors, who are reeling from political battles, have been on the sacking spree. He accussed such governors of overstepping their mandate. Almost all governors who have just assumed office have promised to effect changes to enhance service delivery.