County governments have a rather awful reputation with financial discipline.
It has come as no surprise that the recklessness now involves county workers' pension funds. The hard-working and diligent workers are owed a staggering Sh36 billion in pension cash arrears.
The profligate counties must, as a matter of urgency, take steps to stem this state of affairs.
A majority of the long-suffering county workers have invested many years of their careers knowing that when they retire, they can look forward to a small pot of cash that will cushion them against the obviously heavy spending in health and upkeep that awaits them.
But because the interest on the withheld money will most likely be unrecoverable, we suggest that the counties should be surcharged for the duration they held the money.
The employees, put simply, loaned the counties money.
They naturally deserve an interest on the cash otherwise they face a bleak and miserable future in which they will neither be in a position to buy themselves medicine nor even feed themselves.
We commend the County Pension Fund chiefs for demanding that the money owed be recovered at source by the Controller of Budget and sent to the pension funds directly.
Quote of the Day: "If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it."
John D Rockefeller
The American industrialist died on May 23, 1937
