County Workers To Go On Strike Over Delayed Salaries

County workers across 47 counties in Kenya have threatened to down their tools on Tuesday (next week) if their salaries will not be paid.

Workers across the counties who have not been paid include doctors and nurses and a strike is likely to hit hard on the already ailing health sector in the country.

County Governors, through their Chair Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya have said that counties have no cash to pay salaries for the workers.

The Governors insist that the Jubilee government has refused to release funds meant for the running of day-to-day activities in the counties saying all operations are set to come to a standstill.

Currently, there is a stalemate between the Council of Governors over the share of revenue between the national government and county government.

The national government, through the National Treasury, gave county governments 310 billion shillings from 335 billion shillings that had been recommended by Revenue Allocation Commission.

The National Assembly had proposed counties to receive 316 billion shillings while the Senate wanted counties to receive the full proposed amount of 335 billion shillings.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, while replying to the demands by Governors, said that the government has no money and urged Governors to use whatever they had been given.

Last week, counties announced to their workers that their salaries would delay due to the ongoing push and pull between the national government and county governments.

County government workers, through their union, have already issued a strike notice saying the strike will kick off on Tuesday unless their salaries are remitted before then.

A big percentage of the amount allocated to counties goes into paying of salaries and allowances for county workers.

In most counties, 56 percent of the amount they receive from the national government goes into paying salaries and allowances.

Are there deliberate efforts to kill devolution in Kenya? Are governors blackmailing the national government by failing to pay workers to paint a picture of a crisis?

Read Also: The Big 4 Agenda Will Easily Be Realized If Counties Got More Funds and Have Fiscal Discipline – Governor Wangamati