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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Police officers order junior staff at Gachagua offices to keep off

National

By Ndung’u Gachane | Oct 23, 2024

Junior staff at the Office of the Deputy President have been denied access into the Harambee House Annex and Karen offices.

The workers were turned away by police officers manning the offices when they reported for work yesterday after the Mashujaa Day break, and told they would get communication later.

“I had gone to the office since I had not been affected by the government’s decision to send senior officers on compulsory leave only to be dismissed at the gate. I was told that I would get a ‘notice’ soon when to resume,” one officer said.

Keep Reading business

Another reported how they pleaded to be allowed to pick personal belongings, “but the officers turned a blind deaf ear on my request by repeatedly telling me to go home.”

The staff now say their fate hangs in the balance.

“The law dictates that we should have been sent on leave in writing but in our case, it did not happen. We don’t understand why it has been left to the police officers to restrict access to our offices while the government saw it wise to send the senior officers on leave by a way of writing,” one employee said.

Among those barred from their workplace are career civil servants in the office.

They said they were at crossroads on whether they would be paid their October salary, with some expressing fear they have taken bank loans.

Demand salaries

“We were never issued with a written notice to direct us to go on leave and this may complicate our aim to demand salaries for the days we shall be at home. We have taken loans that require us to be serviced and we hope the President intervenes,” one told The Standard.

Harambee Annex has been protected by the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit, but yesterday the staff found officers from the Rapid Deployment Unit. The development cames two days after the government sent on compulsory leave 108 senior staff working under the impeached Rigathi Gachagua, giving them until noon on Saturday to leave their offices.

“Following the ongoing constitutional process affecting the Deputy President, it has been decided that all officers in Job Groups T and U are to proceed on compulsory leave immediately,” Principal Administrative Secretary Patrick Mwangi wrote to the Chief of Staff and advisors.

Other affected staff include Administration Secretary, Secretary State functions and Chief Finance Officer.