Panic has gripped Lands ministry officials across the country, following the start of a mass transfer exercise of employees aimed at dismantling corruption cartels.
The ministry, which has over the years been cited as one of the most corrupt department of the government, plans to transfer its 3,120 civil servants within two months.
Lands Cabinet secretary Jacob Kaimenyi said yesterday that the exercise, which began this week, will be carried out countrywide to ensure fairness in the service. He said the exercise is aimed at tackling rampant corruption in the land offices where junior workers have been frustrating issuance of tittle deeds or demanding bribes for services.
However, some of the ministry’s staff have already opposed the transfer claiming that they were unfairly being targeted. One of the staff at the Mombasa Lands Registry who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were planning to move to the court to stop the transfers.
“Some of us have families, children in school, how do you wake up and transfer all staff over claims of graft, where is the evidence that we are corrupt?” the officer posed. But Kaimenyi insists the transfers have began and will go on as planned.
“We are going to do it because we want to see improved services and bring some freshness in how people do their work. This will also help Kenyans get better services,” Kaimenyi said.
He said some of the employees had set up businesses in their towns of operation and therefore were spending most of their time on their private ventures instead of working for their employer.
“A substantial amount of government time is spent in those businesses, others go an extra mile of transacting private businesses at their place of work, it is not that we lack policies of transfer, we have all this,” he said.
The CS said all the 57 registries will be affected by the transfers and warned those who are likely to be affected against engaging in “funny ways” of blocking the transfers.
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