Public Service Commission headquarters in Nairobi. Several civil servants will be retrenchment beginning February 2018. [Photo:publicservice.go.ke]Thousands of civil servants will lose their jobs from February as the government starts slashing the sky-rocketing public sector wage bill.Nearly 39,000 employees,about half in the national government, half in the counties, will be retrenched, according to a staff audit report commissioned two years ago.Reports indicate that the retrenchment will take place in two phases from February with redundant employees going home in phase one. The date of the second phase was not disclosed.“The plan is long overdue. It was set to be effected from 2016 but was put off by the presidency,” a senior officer in the presidency told the Star on Thursday.Kenya has about 700,000 employees in the public sector, including 199,921 civil servants in the national and county governments.According to the Star, the massive retrenchment drive was deferred until after the elections to avoid a voters' backlash against President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Jubilee Party.The government has now finally decided to implement the report and Uhuru is understood to have instructed the Department of Public Service to start the downsizing.On Thursday, at the Devolution Conference in Diani, Kwa the President appeared to confirm the retrenchment of redundant staff.“I want you to join me in putting all our public service officers on notice. Nothing will be achieved without transformation of the public service," said Uhuru.The highest casualties will be in the ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, which will send home about 12,000 employees if recommendations are followed.The ministry of Transport and Infrastructure will lose 2,039 staff followed by Education (1,393), Agriculture (1,828), Environment and Water (690), Information, Communication and Technology (255).Others are the East African Community (147) and Foreign Affairs (58), Industrialisation (98), Mining (23) and Treasury (40).According to the Capacity Assessment Rationalisation of the Public Service (CARPS) report, 24 counties proposed staffing levels in excess of what they currently employ. Only four counties, Nyeri, Narok, Busia, and Nairobi, proposed fewer staff.

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