Kitui governor, speaker deny Nyakang’o's high wage bill claim

Kitui Governor Julius Malombe and county assembly speaker Kevin Katisya have dismissed reports that the county was spending 75 per cent of its revenue on salaries.

The reports attributed to Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o said Kitui collected Sh3.9 billion revenue and spent 75 per cent of it on the wage bill and only 25 per cent went to development.

Nyakang’o addressed the National Wage Bill Conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, where she said high spenders on wage bill against the allowed 35 per cent were Kitui at 75 per cent, Kisii at 74 per cent, Garissa at 73 per cent, Busia at 71 per cent  and Nyamira at  71 per cent.

But in a statement to the media on Thursday, the two Kitui county leaders said that the highest expenditure on salaries and emoluments was at 38 per cent and nowhere near 75 per cent as claimed by Nyakang’o.

“You may have read reports in newspapers or watched television news depicting Kitui county as the biggest spender on the wage bill among all the counties of Kenya. Nothing could be further from the truth,” the statement said.

They said the Kitui budget for 2023-24 amounts to Sh14.2 billion, which comprises Sh5.39 billion (38 per cent) for staff salaries Sh3.8 billion (24 per cent) for operations and maintenance and Sh5.3 billion (38 per cent) for development.

“So far, the county government of has spent Sh4 billion on payment of staff salaries and emoluments against the FY2023-2024 approved budget of Sh14.2 billion, which accounts for 28 per cent of the total budget as opposed to the 75 per cent reported by the Controller of Budget,” the county bosses said.

They insisted that the county expenditure breakdown they gave was the true position on Kitui’s wage bill. The other figure announced elsewhere were but hearsay and do not reflect the facts.

Further, the two leaders dismissed people they termed as busybodies whom they accused of spreading falsehoods in social media on the operations of the county,

The accused the naysayers of wrongly claiming that a three day consultative meeting between the Kitui executive and county assembly that ended on Wednesday in Mutomo was a forum to misuse county funds.

They said county governments should hold consultative sessions to evaluate performance and spotlight significant achievements of ministries, as well as to discuss the budget and bills.

“The consultative forums between the county executive and county assembly are great indicators that a county is stable, which paves way for tangible development for county residents,” the leaders said.

“Just to jog your memories, President William Ruto has held a series of such consultative sessions (encompassing both the Executive and the National Assembly) in Nanyuki in January 2023, Sagana in August 2023, and Naivasha in February 2024."