Employees at Nairobi City County Government who lack legitimate academic and professional certificates are staring at possible dismissal after the County Public Service Board (CPSB) officially launched a strict verification crackdown aimed at flushing out unqualified and irregularly hired staff.
The directive is contained in a letter dated December 2, 2025, signed by Acting CPSB Chief Executive Officer Violet Oyangi, and addressed to all staff.
In the letter, the Board instructs all staff to submit copies of all their academic and professional certificates, current appointment letter and a duly signed disclaimer form.
“In line with the directive issued by the Public Service Commission ( PSC) dated 22nd May 2023 and further reference to the communication from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission(EACC) dated 21st August 2025, the Nairobi City County Public Service Board intends to commence a comprehensive verification exercise for all academic and professional certificates for staff,” part of the letter reads
All the staff have been instructed to liaise with their respective sector administrators to ensure submission of all the required documents.
The board had previously asked all departments to immediately submit complete personal files of all staff — including those on permanent terms, contract, temporary engagement and secondments — to facilitate a comprehensive audit of qualifications.
According insiders, the exercise is part of a wider clean-up meant to eliminate employees who allegedly sneaked into the county payroll using forged certificates or without meeting the minimum qualifications for their positions.
The exercise is also targeting senior officials who were unilaterally transferred to different sectors without following due process.
Those found guilty and with questionable papers risk summary dismissal, withdrawal of salary and benefits, surcharges for earnings received illegally, and possible prosecution for fraud and forgery.
Nairobi City County has in recent years been spotlighted for massive payroll irregularities, including ghost workers and employees hired without proper documentation.
The new audit is expected to reveal the true extent of the problem — and many insiders believe dozens of staff may not survive the scrutiny.
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Senior County Officials targeted
This comes at a time when sectoral committees at the County Assembly have raised alarm over senor officials heading positions without letter of appointment or redeployment.
Some of the officers who could find themselves in trouble include Director of Parking Steve Ogesa,Deputy Director Trade Bashit Mohammed and Stephen Mafura who is an accountant in the Disaster Management Department.
In January 2024, Governor Johnson Sakaja was at war with the County Public Service Board over staff recruitment
This is after it emerged that several county officials is battling several corruption cases whose investigations were nearing completion.
However, it has further emerged that there is a special cartel operating as a proxy unit to senior internal staff who are interested in positioning people of their interest to specific positions at City Hall.
This could be the reason Governor Sakaja in 2024 invited EACC to probe corruption related activities over employment opportunities at City Hall
The governor wrote to EACC to, among other things, probe cases of job seekers being coerced to pay money in exchange for jobs at City Hall.
In a letter dated 3rd January,2024,the governor wrote to EACC Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak to help open investigations into the corruption in the county’s employment process.
He stated that various unsuspecting job applicants had fallen prey to a cartel of individuals and have been exploited and stripped of their finances.
” There have been alarming instances where job seekers are being coerced to pay money in exchange for employment opportunities within the various departments of the Nairobi City County Government,” reads part of the letter to EACC.
The County Public Service Board had previously complained to the executive over assigning duties to officers outside their appointed substantive positions.
In a letter dated November 7th,2023 the board demanded that any officer performing duties outside their designated position to revert to their substantive position immediately.
The Public Service Board has severally written to the executive over stage managed redeployment of county officers as well as commitment of officers to duties that they were not substantially employed for.
The board has previously complained of sector heads assigning duties to officers outsiders.
This was fueled by a letter dated 10th November,2023 from Chief Officer Disaster Management and Coordination Bramuel Simiyu to Chief Finance and Economic Planning Asha Abdi.The letter titled: ” UNAUTHORISED COMMITMENTs AND TRANSACTION ON IFMIS FOR THE DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION SECTOR,detailed how a number of transactions were made by staff.
