Concerns have been raised over retiring government workers who are yet to be replaced due to hiring freeze. [Photo: publicservice.go.ke]Concerns have been raised over retiring civil servants who are past retirement age but have been retained because of the government's hiring freeze.At least 1,700 state employees have passed retirement age, but have been retained because of their 'expertise'. Experts warn of disruption of services and loss of this expertise if they retire now.“A huge workforce in government will soon be retiring. This will slow services and the economy,” said Vera Obonyo, deputy director of Kenya School of Government, as quoted by Star newspaper.Treasury CS Henry Rotich wrote a memo in December last year to freeze new hires in order to curb the rising wage bill which has almost surpassed half of Kenya's GDP.Obonyo said retiring workers had acquired crucial knowledge for running the government adding that it will be necessary to tap the knowledge and expertise of the 35 percent of civil servants who are leaving by hiring new workers.This emerged on Thursday during the start of a two-day Knowledge Management Conference at Enashipai Spa in Naivasha. It is organised by the Kenya School of Government.She, however, noted that KSG is tackling the issue and the conference will come up with ways of tapping knowledge.“The big challenge we have is lack of sensitisation, funding and change of mindset,” Obonyo added noting that county governments were not affected as they had embarked on hiring of qualified staff to fill positions of retiring workers.

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