Kirinyaga county officials trade blame over 77 medics salaries

Kirinyaga county officials on Tuesday engaged in a war of words over alleged withholding for three years of salaries for 77 health workers.

County Public Service Board chairman Kennedy Muriithi and county secretary Joe Muriuki exchanged accusations during a health committee session.

Muriithi accused the county government of refusing to pay the medics without any proper reason.

During the session, the two and Health executive Gladys Kimingi were summoned to shed light on the mystery surrounding the medics' three years unpaid dues. 

Muriithi told the committee that his board had okayed the reinstatement of the salaries of 77 workers who responded positively to the county’s plea to return to work during a medics strike in 2019.

It emerged that since July 2019, the affected workers have not received a penny for services rendered.

Muriithi said that despite his board issuing the affected workers copies of reinstatement letters and communicating its decision to the office of the county human resources to input their names back into payroll, that was never implemented.

“In the wisdom of the board, it was decided that all striking medics would not receive their June salaries because they didn’t offer services. However, in July, those who petitioned our board to have reported back to work were 108. We undertook a thorough scrutiny and found out that only 77 had returned to work thus directing for the reinstatement of their salaries.”

Muriithi said a day after the said directive was communicated and agreed upon, the county secretary, without a written document, ordered that the names be struck out of the payroll, citing orders from the governor.

“My board’s position as of today is that the letters we issued are still valid and the workers are considered part of the county civil servants, thus should get their rightful pay,” he said.

Muriithi said many of the workers have suffered financial constraints due to the denial of salary, adding that the county had resorted to "playing petty supremacy battles with his board as well as privatise a public office".

In his response, county secretary Muriuki accused Muriithi of carrying out an exercise without conducting due diligence on the county's financial position.

He said the county was still grappling with insufficient budgetary allocations and was not in a position to facilitate the payments.

“There are various requirements that the board should abide by before issuing any appointment letters. It should take note of the available budgetary allocation. In this case if they were to be reinstated in the said period, the county would be compelled to spend about Sh175 million which is not available,” Muriuki said.

He said the executive has yet to agree with the board’s decision to have the medics included in the payroll.

The health workers, through lawyer Dan Kamunda, said they have filed a case in the Nyeri Labour Court seeking to compel the county to pay them their dues as efforts to have a sitting to iron out the matter have been unsuccessful.

He said it was a flimsy excuse for the county secretary to say they had insufficient funds, yet there were supplementary budgets being adopted by the house and the county is still recruiting employees.

“The county secretary says there is no money to pay the workers. Where is his salary and that of the county staff, more so the revenue department officers who were recruited late last year coming from? The health workers feel oppressed and justice should be served as they have for long been subjected to an illegality by their employer.”

CEC Kimingi told the committee chaired by Erastus Ireri that the county was willing to find a solution.

She promised to furnish the committee with a detailed report of the health workers who were serving without pay.

The health committee will compile a report of its findings and present recommendations to the assembly.

Edited by A.N