Date set for case on Kenyan civil servant listing

A petition by a union seeking to stop the ongoing registration of civil servants through biometric data collection will be heard next Tuesday.

Labour Relations and Employment Court judge Maureen Onyango yesterday certified the petition as urgent and directed the Kenya Government Workers Union (KGWU) to serve Attorney General Githu Muigai, Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru and the County Government of Nairobi, who are the respondents.

The union said the process through which the Government wants to weed out ghost workers was unfair as it was aiming to sack workers who do not have crucial documents.

Civil servants are required to produce original academic and professional certificates, current payslip, original identity card, completed biometric data capture form, first appointment letter, birth certificate and a letter indicating the current post.

 FAIR PROCESS

The union says the requirements are unconstitutional and the registration was breaching individuals’ rights to fair administrative process.

Through lawyer Brian Otieno, the union said the servants were employed by the Government through valid means but the process might lock out individuals who might have lost their documents.

According to the union’s chairman, Roba Duba, who is also the Moyale Member of Parliament, the exercise has already set parameters that will disadvantage some Nairobi County government employees who do not have the required documents.

“Some of the employees were employed a long time ago and they do not have what is required for the process,” Mr Duba said.

The union wants the process stopped immediately, terming it unreasonable.

The matter had been filed in the High Court but was transferred to the Labour Court.