Contractors from Garissa who are owed hundreds of millions of shillings by the county have appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to help them get paid.
During a press conference in Garissa town on Thursday, about 40 contractors said the presidential directive that they be paid all their pending dues has been ignored.
They said they were owed Sh1.9 billion for projects initiated dating back to 2013.
Mohamed Yussuf said their numerous visits to the county treasury has borne no fruit. “We thank the President and Treasury CS for directing the counties on numerous occasions to settle all pending bills but unfortunately our county seems not interested in paying us,” Yussuf said.
Garissa is among 15 counties whose funding the Treasury has threatened to withhold until they clear pending bills.
“We have reached a point where we think the only person who can compel the county to pay us is the President. We hope this message reaches him,” Yussuf said.
Fatuma Hussein Mohamed said they do not have faith a committee constituted by Governor Ali Korane to review pending bills.
She said the Auditor General's report was the most independent audit.
The mother of eight said she needed to be paid to prepare her son who sat KCPE to join Form 1 next year.
“I am a widow who was left with eight children to look after. I committed most of my monies in the projects I was contracted to deliver but it is now more than five years without payment,” she said.
Korane says his administration was not in a hurry to pay pending billa it inherited from the previous administration. The bills amount to Sh4 billion.
Two weeks ago, acting Treasury CS Ukur Yatani said they had noted with a lot of concern that departments and agencies in both the national and county governments have persistently failed to pay their outstanding bills.
Yatani said the delayed payments have led to a deterioration of the financial positions of businesses and SMEs with a negative impact on the economy.
Others counties that have been listed for not clearing their pending bills include Narok, Machakos, Nairobi, Vhiga, Isiolo, Tana River, Migori, Tharaka-Nithi, Bomet, Kirinyaga, Nandi, Mombasa, Kiambu, and Baringo.
edited by p. obuya
