Staff devolved from the Kenya National Library Service (KNLS) are demanding accountability from CEO Dr Charles Ngui Nzibo regarding their pension, welfare dues and a stalled land investment, alleging ongoing mismanagement and lack of transparency.
They claim the KNLS Board, which legally holds investments on behalf of members, acquired land that continues to lose value, yet efforts to have it sold and proceeds distributed have been ignored.
Their pension scheme is growing at a rate of just 1% to 3%, jeopardising their financial security in retirement, and requests to join individual pension schemes have been blocked with alleged support from certain officials at the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA).
The Maktaba Welfare Fund, originally meant to assist staff in times of bereavement, has been systematically drained, with officials accused of turning it into a private cash source, and the KSh 500,000 declared upon its dissolution remains far below what members contributed.
Staff say Dr. Nzibo, once their colleague, has refused to act on their pleas, allowing the alleged mismanagement to persist under his leadership.
“Dr. Charles Ngui Nzibo. The C.E.O Kenya National Library Service. Being the secretary to the board, he is in a position to shed light on what ails the devolved staff. The law allows the trustee board to invest on behalf of members, and indeed they invested in some land that is depreciating every year. Members have requested the disposal of this land so that every member can get his due, but nobody listens to their plea. When a forensic audit is done on the acquisition and the said land, you will realize that indeed this was a scam on the members’ money,” a source said.
Secondly, it is about staff pension, which is growing at a rate of between 1% and 3%. The sole purpose was to make members have a soft landing in their retirement, but from the 1% to 3% being declared, their dream will never be realized. They have requested to join individual schemes but they have been blocked with the support of some untrustworthy officials from RBA. When we try to call the RBA office, we are told that we are still K.N.L.S employees, when the documents we have show we were devolved effective 1st July 2023.
Thirdly, it is about Maktaba welfare dues. The main purpose of this welfare was to ease the burden of members in case they lost a loved one, but along the way, this was abandoned and turned into a dairy cow for the officials who eventually milked it completely dry and still roam around in the accounts and human resource departments shamelessly. The money was being deducted from our payslips voluntarily, but surprisingly, they dissolved it after we were devolved and declared that they only had 500,000. Money that can’t even be enough refund for a single devolved branch out of the 43 devolved branches.
The devolved staff have requested Dr. Charles Nzibo. The C.E.O and secretary to K.N.L.S board. To help them recover their monies, but their pleas have not been considered to date. Dr. Nzibo was an employee of K.N.L.S before being hired as the C.E.O. Of which we thought he would assist the devolved staff to get their dues from these corrupt welfare officials. But his actions are even making his predecessor look like a saint.”