Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has announced that the government will commence the biometric registration of all civil servants in May. Speaking during an interview with KTN News, Kuria emphasized that the registration would be mandatory and conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health as part of the new digital health system.
“I intend to do biometrics re-registration of all public workers starting from next month. As part of digital health, we have to take the biometrics of everybody so that they can access social health, which is a good thing,” Kuria stated.
The move is part of the government’s efforts to weed out ghost workers from the wage bill, with Kuria highlighting that technology was the only way to accurately determine the number of ghost workers within the state payroll.
“We are on it, and I was hoping that people who are more religious than me will exercise the ghost, but since they have not, let me use technology,” Kuria added.
Kuria had first announced the biometric registration of employees in February, but without a specific date. The registration will involve the biometric recording of all employees, estimated to exceed 900,000, including those in counties.
“This country is full of ghosts. We are paying ghost civil servants and ghost teachers. We are spending capital on ghost students. We are sending cash transfers to ghost elderly citizens,” Kuria stated.
The biometric registration is a crucial step towards ensuring accountability and transparency in the public sector, as well as eliminating fraud and corruption.
