A fresh wave of anger is building inside the Department of Civil Registration Services after staff who took part in the countrywide Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) say they remain unpaid months after the exercise began, even as colleagues from the National Registration Bureau (NRB) and chiefs who worked alongside them have already received their money.

The complaint coming from inside the department is not just about delayed allowances. It is about what workers see as blatant unfairness, institutional neglect and the casual mistreatment of public servants who were deployed into the field, asked to leave their homes and families, and pushed to work under difficult conditions in the name of delivering a national government exercise. The frustration is that the work was done jointly, the sacrifices were shared, the risks were the same, but when payment time came, one side was taken care of while the other was left stranded.

That is the scandal now hanging over the Department of Civil Registration Services. Officers say they have been working on the RRI since April, alongside staff from the National Registration Bureau, yet as the new financial year begins, they are still waiting for payment while NRB officers and chiefs were reportedly paid almost immediately. For the affected officers, the silence from those in charge is becoming harder to accept because this is not money they are begging for. It is money tied to work already done under a government assignment.

And this is where the issue becomes bigger than a routine payroll complaint. RRI operations are not desk jobs. They involve movement, deployment, fieldwork and personal sacrifice. Officers were sent away from their normal working stations. Some had to borrow money just to travel and secure accommodation in unfamiliar areas because the assignment could not wait for government bureaucracy to catch up. Some left behind very young children and families for extended periods because duty called. Others were deployed into regions with harsh and unfamiliar climatic conditions, exposing them to health challenges and physical strain. They endured all of that under the belief that once the exercise was completed, the government would at least honour its most basic obligation and pay them what they were owed.

Instead, they now find themselves in the humiliating position of watching colleagues from another department who worked alongside them get paid while they remain stuck in uncertainty.

That is what makes this more than a simple delay. It is a statement about how some public servants are treated as disposable once the work is done. It tells staff that their labour can be demanded urgently, their time can be taken without question, their family lives can be disrupted, their health can be put under strain, and their personal finances can be stretched to breaking point, only for the same government to turn around and behave as if payment is optional.

For many of the affected officers, this is not a small inconvenience. Some borrowed money for transport because they could not afford to finance deployment out of pocket. Some borrowed for accommodation because the exercise required them to stay away from home. Others used money meant for family needs because they assumed reimbursement or payment would come in good time. Now they are left carrying debt, pressure from lenders, household strain and the bitterness of knowing that others who did the same assignment under the same government umbrella have already been sorted.

The Department of Civil Registration Services leadership should be answering hard questions already. Why are staff who participated in the RRI from April still unpaid? If the exercise was conducted jointly with the National Registration Bureau, why has one side been paid while the other is still waiting? Was the budget for Civil Registration staff never secured in advance? Were funds released selectively? Is this a case of administrative incompetence, neglect or a deeper problem in how the department values its own officers? And why are officers being left to suffer in silence while the new financial year begins and no clear explanation has been given?

The Ministry under which Civil Registration falls should also not imagine this is a minor internal matter. These are government workers who were deployed on official duty. If they have gone unpaid while another department involved in the same exercise has already been paid, then somebody in leadership either failed to plan, failed to process payment, or simply decided that Civil Registration staff could wait indefinitely while carrying the burden of debt and sacrifice alone.

What makes the complaint especially painful is that officers are not talking about luxury claims or inflated demands. They are talking about the most basic expectation that if the government sends you out to work, uproots you from your station, exposes you to harsh conditions and depends on your labour to deliver a national exercise, it should at the very least pay you on time. That should not be controversial. It should be the bare minimum standard of decency in public service.

Instead, the message being sent to these officers is that their work can be used, their commitment can be taken for granted, and their suffering can be ignored. It is a dangerous message because it destroys morale in departments that are already under pressure. Public servants who feel abandoned by their own employer do not simply forget that treatment. It breeds resentment, mistrust and a sense that some government institutions are happy to demand sacrifice from workers but unwilling to stand by them once the assignment is over.

Good morning, Nyakundi. Please hide my identity

I am a civil servant working in the Department of Civil Registration Services. We have conducted the RRI since April together with the Department of National Registration Bureau, yet NRB staff together with chiefs were paid immediately while staff from Civil Registration remain unpaid even in this new financial year.

What hurts most is that we all did the same work under the same government programme, in the same field conditions, but when payment came, one side was remembered and the other was abandoned. Many of us had to borrow money for transport and accommodation because we were deployed outside our working stations and could not afford to sustain ourselves away from home. Some officers left behind very young children and families because the assignment demanded it. Others were exposed to different climatic conditions that affected them health-wise, but they still stayed on duty and completed the work.

It is now painful and demoralising to watch NRB staff and chiefs get their money while officers from Civil Registration are still being ignored without a proper explanation. We are not asking for favours. We are asking to be paid for work we have already done since April. If this was a joint exercise, why is one department treated as if its officers matter while the other is treated like it does not? We are tired of borrowing, tired of waiting and tired of being taken for granted. Kindly help expose this because the silence from those responsible is becoming unbearable.