EAC chief cautions officials against ‘harassing’ retirees

East Africa Community secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko (centre) on the sidelines of a past forum. The EAC boss has warned he would deal accordingly with officials who would harass employees leaving the Community’s secretariat upon retirement. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • The EAC secretary general, Mr Liberat Mfumukeko, has warned he would deal accordingly with officials who would harass employees leaving the Community upon retirement.
  • He confirmed, in a communication to all staff within the organs and institutions under the Community, a large number of staff will be leaving EAC from the end of this month and March upon completion of their tenure of office.

Kampala. The East African Community (EAC) says it was increasingly getting concerned by rough treatment of exiting staff.

The EAC secretary general, Mr Liberat Mfumukeko, has warned he would deal accordingly with officials who would harass employees leaving the Community upon retirement.

He confirmed, in a communication to all staff within the organs and institutions under the Community, a large number of staff will be leaving EAC from the end of this month and March upon completion of their tenure of office.

However, he said he has noted with great concern the rough treatment to staff when exiting upon expiry of their work contracts.

“Their outlook emails are blocked and access cards disconnected. This is inhuman for staff who have served the Community with dedication, some of whom for over 10 years,” he said, directing the concerned officials in the human resources, IT and security departments to devise a better way of handling the situation.

He added that EAC would consult its retired professionals when necessary, noting that the retirement of a large number of staff at one time would pose a challenge to the activities of the regional organization.

Mid last year, the Arusha-based secretariat pleaded to the partner states to unanimously agree on lifting a freeze on recruitment of new staff with the imminent mandatory retirement of 52 professionals.

There had been fears that the mass exit will cripple the operations of the Community if the vacant posts in the executive organ of the regional body are not filled in time.

The secretariat has pleaded to the partner states that it should be allowed to commence the recruitment process immediately to fill the positions so as to ensure a smooth transition that would guarantee sustainable operations of the Community.

Impeccable sources have told The Citizen that retirement of key staff members would also affect two other organs of EAC which are the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) and the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) as well as nearly a dozen institutions under the Community scattered in the region.

The recruitment of the general staff as well as the professionals working for the EAC and its organs and institutions is normally done on a quota system which ensures each of the five member countries; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda.South Sudan would soon come on board.

The Citizen has not been told how many employees the EAC has at the moment.

But is estimated to number between 200 and 300 if all the institutions directly under its annual budget based in Kisumu (Kenya), Jinja and Kampala in Uganda, Kigali (Rwanda) Bujumbura (Burundi) Zanzibar (Tanzania) and the headquarters in Arusha are included.

By June 2014 though, the Secretariat alone had 231 employees, of whom six were executive staff, 69 professional, 46 general service staff, 84 project staff and 16 temporary employees.

Eala and EACJ by then had 34 and 24 staff members respectively.

Staff under the service of the Community are required to retire after attaining 60 years of age which is compulsory for one to exit from the services of the Community.