Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku has ordered 84 human resource officers to step aside for 30 working days. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) is probing suspected payroll fraud estimated at Sh6.2 billion.

Ruku announced the move at a press briefing at Harambee House on Friday, October 16. He said the officers had been linked to irregularities flagged in a government payroll audit and in a follow-up DCI report dated October 7, 2026.

The officers work in the Kenya Prisons Service, the National Police Service and two departments of the Ministry of Health, Citizen Digital and Capital FM reported.

Payroll access cut off

The 84 have already lost access to the government payroll system. Ruku said the step was meant to stop any further manipulation and protect public money while investigators work.

"These findings demand immediate action," Ruku said, according to Citizen Digital.

He directed principal secretaries and accounting officers in the affected departments to make sure the officers proceed on leave and that every administrative step follows the law.

To keep salaries flowing, the ministry will send replacement HR officers to the affected institutions and give them payroll access.

Ruku said disciplinary action would depend on the evidence and the relevant laws. He also indicated that arrests could be made before the 30 days are over, particularly among officials in the Prisons Service.

Capital FM noted that the leave and the removal from payroll duties are administrative measures. They do not by themselves establish criminal liability.

Ghost workers and unborn employees

The crackdown is the latest stage of a probe that began with an audit by the Ministry of Public Service, Human Capital Development and Special Programmes. In July, the Cabinet directed the DCI to investigate the suspected losses.

In a Citizen TV interview reported by Kenyans.co.ke, Ruku described some of the audit's findings. They included employees whose records showed they were hired before they were born, and others listed as joining the civil service before turning 18.

The audit also flagged employees sharing bank accounts, several salaries paid into a single account, and payments made to people without valid bank accounts.

The National Police Service was among the worst affected. Investigators found Sh336 million had been paid into one bank account linked to several employees, Kenyans.co.ke reported. The Department of Immigration was flagged over Sh31 million in unverified salary arrears covering six months.

"Why would the government be accumulating arrears beyond six months? Why? These are the questions that need to be answered," Ruku said in the interview.

Constitutional duty

Ruku has framed the crackdown as a constitutional obligation. Speaking at a church event in Tharaka Nithi earlier in the probe, he said the President had issued strict instructions to make sure no public funds are lost through payroll manipulation, The Eastleigh Voice reported.

He cited Articles 10 and 232 of the Constitution, which set out national values and the principles of public service.

The wage bill remains one of the biggest pressures on the Treasury, which has long struggled with ghost workers and padded payrolls. The government says officials found culpable will face prosecution and that it will try to recover lost funds.

The investigations are expected to establish the scale of the irregularities and who was responsible for each.

Photos: CS Geoffrey Ruku at a press briefing, Citizen Digital; Harambee House, Nairobi, DEMOSH/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).