Former civil servants seek release of Sh1.6bn after 2012 retrenchment ruling

More than 5,000 former civil servants are now pressing the government to settle a Sh1.6 billion court award, accusing State agencies of dragging their feet for over a decade despite losing a case over their retrenchment.

The dispute, which has stretched across more than 20 years, traces back to a public service downsizing programme carried out in 2000, where thousands of workers in different ministries were retrenched or pushed into early retirement as part of efforts to reduce government spending and streamline the workforce.

Years later, the affected workers challenged the exercise in court, arguing that the process had been carried out unfairly and outside the law.

In a judgment delivered in 2012, the High Court ruled that the retrenchment was unlawful, unconstitutional and in breach of employment rules governing public service. The court further ordered compensation covering salary arrears, damages, pension-related payments, legal costs and interest.

Despite that ruling, the payment has not been made.

Court documents show that a certificate of costs amounting to Sh1.65 billion was issued in July 2020, but the award has remained unsettled.

“The applicants obtained a valid judgment, decree, and certificate of costs in their favour,” the claimants state in their submissions. “Despite repeated demands and the lapse of over five years since the issuance of the certificate of costs in 2020 and over a decade since the initial judgment in 2012, the respondents have failed, refused, or neglected to settle the decretal amount.”

The former workers insist that the government has had enough time to comply with the court decision and are now seeking orders compelling the Attorney-General and the National Treasury to release the funds.

On its part, the government says the delay is not deliberate but is linked to long-standing administrative difficulties in verifying claims belonging to thousands of beneficiaries spread across multiple ministries.

Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo told the court that an inter-ministerial team was set up to oversee the implementation of the judgment and coordinate verification of affected employees.

He explained that the process has been slowed down by missing records and structural changes within government over the years, including the restructuring and disappearance of some ministries where the affected officers once served.

According to him, only part of the required documentation has been recovered.

“To date, only 2,719 files have been successfully retrieved and verified, while 2,412 files remain missing, thereby hindering final computation of the decretal sum,” he stated.

The Treasury maintains that it has not refused to comply with the court order, insisting instead that the delay is caused by the complexity of verifying historical employment records spanning decades.

However, the former civil servants reject this explanation, arguing that internal administrative challenges cannot be used as a reason to delay payment of a lawful court award.

Court filings indicate that government departments have been exchanging correspondence over the years in efforts to trace personnel files and secure budgetary allocation for settlement of the decree.

In 2022, the Attorney-General’s office acknowledged that the matter involved more than 5,100 claimants drawn from different ministries and confirmed that consultations were ongoing on how the compensation would be handled.

Further reports from an inter-agency committee show that the Ministry of Public Service had requested funding from the Treasury while verification of missing files was still ongoing.

The matter now returns to court as the former civil servants push for enforcement of the long-standing judgment, adding fresh pressure on the government over one of the longest-running compensation disputes involving public service restructuring in the country.