ADVERT 
ADVERTThe Senate is being urged to reject a proposed law that would introduce inter-county transfers for pensionable county employees, with lawmakers warning that the arrangement could create a backdoor route into public service jobs and undermine fair competition.
The Senate Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations Committee has recommended rejection of the County Governments (Amendment) Bill, 2024, sponsored by Nominated Senator George Mbugua. The committee, chaired by Wajir Senator Sheikh Abbass, argues that the proposed transfer system is fundamentally incompatible with the constitutional structure governing Kenya’s 47 county governments.
At the centre of the dispute is whether an employee moving from one county to another should legally be regarded as being transferred or as taking up a completely new appointment.
According to the committee, the national transfer-of-service framework cannot simply be extended to county governments because each county operates as a separate employer. An officer moving from one county to another would therefore be seeking employment with a different employer rather than merely changing duty stations.
That distinction has major implications for recruitment.
ADVERTThe committee says county positions are constitutionally subject to fair competition and merit, meaning vacancies should ordinarily be advertised and made available to all suitably qualified Kenyans. Allowing an existing county employee to move directly into a position in another county, senators argue, could give that individual an advantage over equally qualified applicants who never get an opportunity to compete for the position.
The proposed legislation was designed with a very different objective.
Senator Mbugua argues that Kenya needs a mechanism through which experienced county professionals can move to areas where their skills are most needed without losing pension, retirement and other accrued benefits. The Bill proposes a framework involving all 47 County Public Service Boards to facilitate consultation, coordination and transfers.
Under the proposal, an officer would generally need to have served at a duty station for at least three continuous years before seeking a transfer. County Public Service Boards would also be required to consider factors including service delivery, existing skills in the receiving county, ethnic diversity, gender and representation of persons with disabilities.
The idea has an obvious attraction.
Kenya’s devolved governments do not necessarily have an equal distribution of specialised skills. Some counties struggle to attract experienced professionals in areas such as health, engineering, finance, planning and technical administration, while others may have officers whose expertise could potentially be deployed more effectively elsewhere.
But good intentions do not automatically make good legislation.
The Senate committee’s objection exposes a deeper problem facing devolution: how to promote mobility and national cohesion without turning county employment into an informal national pool of jobs outside competitive recruitment.
The committee maintains that an officer who wants to work in another county already has a legal route available—apply and compete for an advertised vacancy through the receiving County Public Service Board.
That position places the principle of equal opportunity above administrative convenience.
It also raises an important question for policymakers: if inter-county transfers are allowed, what safeguards would prevent politically connected officers from bypassing open recruitment? Who would determine whether a transfer is genuinely based on skills and public interest rather than patronage? And how would counties protect existing employees from being displaced by incoming officers?
These questions cannot be brushed aside.
The Bill’s proponents are right that experienced public servants should not be forced to lose their accumulated benefits simply because they wish to serve elsewhere. But the solution must protect both employee mobility and the constitutional right of Kenyans to compete fairly for public jobs.
The debate therefore goes beyond the fate of one Bill. It touches the future of Kenya’s devolved public service.
As counties mature, the country needs a human-resource system capable of retaining expertise, rewarding competence and encouraging professional mobility while preventing ethnic favouritism, nepotism and political patronage.
The Senate now has an opportunity to draw that line clearly.
Rejecting the Bill in its current form need not mean rejecting the principle of inter-county professional mobility altogether. It could instead compel lawmakers to return with a more carefully designed framework—one that protects pension rights and professional mobility without sacrificing competitive recruitment.
For Kenya’s 47 counties, devolution must not become a licence for closed employment networks. Neither should county boundaries become unnecessary barriers to professional talent.
The real challenge is to build a system that achieves both.
