Governor Charity Ngilu in a past event. Her administration has failed to pay county workers their July salary. PHOTO| FILE |
BY MARGARET KIMATHI
As the Kitui county government July salary stalemate continues to bite, county workers have threatened to sabotage collection of revenue, a move that may cripple completely the nearly empty county collection basket.
Kenya
County Government Union Workers members from the county on Wednesday vowed to destabilize
the revenue collection unit if the county government won’t pay them the July
salaries.
Addressing
reporters at the Mwingi Town administration offices union officials led by
their youth representative John Syandeli condemned the Ngilu-led county
government for failing to pay the staff a fortnight after the end month.
The
county official while lauding the Mwingi branch members for boycotting work,
demanded for the county government to move with speed and pay its workers to
alleviate their suffering.
County
workers from various departments shared the sentiments of their officials
chanting “haki yetu” clarion call.
“We
are collecting a lot of money for the county government but we are not getting
our salaries if the governor will not pay us we will not collect any other
money”, the angry workers threatened.
The
workers castigated Governor Ngilu administration over what termed as failure to
manage its labour force – a situation that has never been experienced in the
county during the regime of the former governor Dr. Julius Malombe.
“During
governor Malombe’s regime we used to receive our salaries in time and a lot of
development would be seen. During the current regime we are not getting paid
and at the same time there is no development in our county,” one of the
unionists lamented.
“Where is our governor? We want to see her so
that she can answer all our questions. If our money is being taken away by “majini” let her tell us”, another member
charged.
The
workers narrated that life was becoming unbearable in the county as majority of
the county staffers are unable to pay their bills and meet their daily livelihood
as result of delayed pay of wages. "Our houses have been locked because we
are unable to pay rent and our children are at a risk of lacking food while we
have been working," complained a female worker.
On
Tuesday Deputy Governor Dr Gideon Wathe had a hard time addressing the workers
who held a peaceful demonstration to his office demanding for pay. In his
response to the agitated workers the deputy county boss said he would write to
the landlords and other stakeholders owed by workers to be patient as the
county government tries to address the salary standoff. He blamed the current delay on the Division of Revenue Bill,2019 impasse by the two houses of the Parliament.
However, salary
standoff is not a new vocabulary in Kitui County as June salaries were paid in the
last week of July even after the salaries having been factored in the last
financial year (2018/2019) budget estimates.
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