•The suspension is over integrity issues.
•Those who report to work late told they are also thieves.
Image: FILE
Ten Kakamega county employees have been suspended over integrity issues, Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has disclosed.
The workers are from various departments, including senior enforcement officers, Oparanya said without naming them.
“Corruption is in and outside the executive. These corrupt cartels are operating mostly in commercial areas and the corridors of the executive. Some are stealing man hours from the government by reporting late to work yet they earn full salaries. Their days are numbered,” the chairman of the Council of Governors said.
He said corruption was a two-way affair and involves the giver and the receiver, each of them equally culpable.
The governor workers had not accounted for imprests totalling to Sh114 million.
He ordered chief finance officer Geoffrey Omulayi to submit a report to him by this (Friday) morning.
Oparanya, who spoke when he met traders at Social Hall on Wednesday, said he was dismayed by stalled school and hospital projects in which hundreds of millions of shillings had been spent since 2015.
He was unhappy with some traders for engaging in corruption. They were allocated stalls at a monthly rent of Sh1,000 but instead let the structures to other people at a monthly rate of Sh5,000-Sh7,000. “Unfortunately those we allocated the stalls to do not even pay us the Sh1,000 fee.”
He reminded the traders that they are supposed to hold elections on April 20 in respective venues in accordance with the County Markets Management Act 2018 under the supervision of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Kakamega Main Market traders will hold theirs at Bukhungu Stadium.
Oparanya blamed his trade and tourism CEC for failing to offer a solution to the wrangles among various groups of traders.
The meeting was attended by among others deputy Governor Philip Kutima, Kakamega County Commissioner Abdirazak Jaldesa and chairperson of the County Public Service Board Rodah Masaviru.