Kenya’s government has announced a plan to cut more than 20 000 jobs in the civil service sector in order to make it more efficient, local media reports said on Thursday.
Kenya’s National Security Minister Chris Murungaru said the layoffs will start next month and end in 2007. Under the plan, the civil service workforce will be cut from 123 000 to 102 000.
The 21 338 workers the government plans to retire will receive a pension package that, according to Murungaru, will ensure retirees have the necessary start-up capital for new businesses.
The minister denied the layoffs have anything to do with pressure from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The announcement sparked fury from the unions, with the head of the Civil Servants Union, Alphayo Nyakundi, saying ”if Narc [the ruling coalition] wants to commit political suicide, let them retrench. If the government wants confrontation, then it will get it.”
Nyakundi said a strike is not ruled out.
One of the current government’s election promises was that it would create 2,5-million jobs over a period of five years. — Sapa-DPA