Nearly one percent of the public service workforce, or 2,078 workers had not been paid Sh2.49 billion in salaries in the year ended June 2024.
Of these, 2,066 workers were unpaid for the entire period.
Disclosures from a new Public Service Commission (PSC) report reveal that the bulk of the unpaid workers, 1,544, were employed in public universities, largely due to financial constraints faced by the learning institutions.
Others unpaid workers were in ministries and State departments at 223, State corporations and semi-autonomous agencies (273), statutory commissions and authorities (8) and Tvets (18).
“Institutions gave diverse reasons for failure to pay the respective officers. These included financial constraints at 72 percent or 1,494 staff, affected officers facing disciplinary action meanwhile stood at 372,” the PSC said in a new report.
The majority of the unpaid staff had their salaries delayed for between seven and 12 months, while 129 workers had been owed salaries for more than a year.
Twelve officers who were owed Sh1.76 million had their salaries delayed for an undisclosed period.
The 2,066 unpaid staff during the year represented 0.9 percent of the 231,830 workers in the service.
Staff at Egerton University were the worst hit among workers in public universities, which had the highest number of officers impacted by unpaid salaries.
“Out the 1,544 officers in public universities who did not receive their salaries as of 30 June 2024, Egerton University had the highest number, with a total of 1,485 or 96 percent of staff not paid and financial constraints as the key reason for non-payment,” the PSC added.
“Others were Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) with 68 (3.3 percent), Ministry of Defence with 44 (2.1 percent) State Department of Lands and Physical Planning with 42 (2 percent), the National Treasury 42 (2 percent) and the National Youth Service with 42 (2 percent).”
At Kenya Power, 38 staff members were unpaid, representing 1.8 percent of the company’s workforce, while 25 workers at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) went unpaid, 1.2 percent of its workforce.
According to the PSC, 72 percent of institutions with unpaid staff cited financial constraints as the reason for non-payment of salaries, signalling the funding crisis in institutions, especially public universities.
Moi University has been in the thick of a funding squeeze in recent years with staffers frequently striking to demand overdue salaries and unremitted statutory deductions.
The management of the university released Sh113 million salary arrears in January as part of a return-to-work formula aimed at averting the resumption of a strike by teaching and non-teaching staff.
The PSC has called for the rationalisation of staff at public universities and an audit of State corporations to cure the non-payment of salaries to the civil servants.
“The PSC will review staff establishments for public universities and rationalise staff to conform with the policy position of 70:30 technique to support rationing,” the PSC said.
“The Commission will undertake human resource audits in State departments and State corporations affected by non-payment of staff to establish the reasons for non-payment.”
