Did the County Public Service Board actually hire anyone outside due process? Did hundreds of health workers earn any money as a result of this irregularly employment? And if so, who authorized it?
These are the uncomfortable questions now hanging over Siaya County, after revelations that some 382 health workers may have been recruited through fraudulent appointment letters.
Whistleblower from within
The storm broke when the County Public Service Board (CPSB), led by Chief Executive Officer Wilfred Ouma Nyagudi, publicly disowned the bulk of the appointments.
During a tense meeting with county officials and the affected staff, Nyagudi challenged employees to prove the authenticity of their appointment letters.
“From this meeting, can anyone of you prove that the letters you have came from the Board? Can you prove you signed at the register receiving your letters?” he asked. None could respond.
A subsequent internal audit conducted in August confirmed the suspicions: of the 500 individuals posted to the health department, only 120 had genuine appointment letters. The rest — about 382 workers — were found to have forged or irregular documents.
The Board immediately suspended the affected workers and formally referred the matter to investigative authorities.
Anatomy of the Irregular Hires
Kenya’s public service hiring follows a strict sequence: advertisement of vacancies, shortlisting, interviews, issuance of offer and acceptance letters, and finally, deployment. The discovery that hundreds of staff bypassed this framework raises fundamental concerns:
Did the Board itself hire anyone irregularly?
How were the staff absorbed into the system and deployed without proper documentation?
Did any of these individuals draw salaries from the County payroll unlawfully — and if so who enabled it?
Some of the dismissed staff allege they paid large sums to secure the fake letters, probably suggesting collusion between actors both inside and outside county government structures.
Governor Orengo’s Position
Governor James Orengo has distanced his administration from the irregular hires and warned that the law will take its course.
“In any case, the employment process has advertisement, interviews, and shortlisting before one can be issued with a letter of offer and appointment. Anything outside that is a forgery,” he stated.
He added that bribery for jobs undermines both public trust and service delivery, and pledged full cooperation with investigators.
Assembly and EACC Step In
The Siaya County Assembly, under Speaker George Okode, has already gazetted a special committee to investigate the scandal. Meanwhile, the EACC has launched a forensic probe to establish how the irregular hires were recruited, whether they drew salaries, and which individuals facilitated the scheme.
The Public Service Board’s intervention has positioned it as a whistleblower rather than an accomplice, but investigators are expected to scrutinize all levels of the recruitment chain to determine responsibility.
Implications for the Health Sector
The scandal comes at a time when Siaya’s health sector is under pressure from staffing shortages and budget constraints. The sudden withdrawal of hundreds of workers will create short-term gaps, even as the County works to clean up its systems.
Yet beyond service delivery, the crisis has exposed systemic vulnerabilities in devolved hiring. Analysts note that unless accountability is enforced, similar recruitment cartels could re-emerge.
For now, the people of Siaya are left waiting for answers to the very questions that ignited the storm:
Who exactly hired the irregular staff? Did the County pay out any salaries illegally? And who, ultimately, benefited from the scheme?
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