This archive report was first published on 7 August 2019.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has told governors that the Government will not increase allocations to counties beyond the Sh316 billion offered in the National Assembly's Bill, a position reiterated recently by Treasury officials.
However, the Senate has approved Sh335 billion that the governors want, but there has to be an agreement between the two Houses before the Division of Revenue Bill can become law.
County employees are yet to be paid their July salaries as the standoff between the State and National Assembly on one hand and Senate and governors on the other, escalates.
Four unions representing county employees have issued a 7-day strike notice, warning that workers will boycott duty and take to the streets if their salaries are not paid by Monday next week.
The unions, which include the Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU), Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), Union of Kenya Civil Servants and Kenya National Union of Nurses (Knun), are demanding the payment of July salaries by close of business Monday next week.
According to KCGWU Secretary General Roba Duba, employees in the 47 counties will congregate at the premises of their employers and engage in a pay-parade to demand salaries.
“We are demanding the payment of July, 2019 salaries by close of business Monday next week, failure to which we will have no alternative but to take industrial action. If it comes to that, we will paralyse operations across all the counties,” said Mr Duba.
Up to 97,000 workers are affected by the salary delays, with 39,000 employees under KCGWU, 32,000 under KMPDU and 26,000 under Knun.
Backed by the unions, KMPDU urged counties to come up with ways to ensure workers were paid.
“We do not care whether the county governments will pay the salaries in envelopes, but they must honour their contractual agreements with workers,” said Dr Ouma Oluga.
The nurses' union said it would launch a petition to have counties stopped from handling workers' salaries.
“All workers, regardless of their profession, will join in on the pay parade, which will continue until the workers are all paid,” said Mr Seth Panyako.
Published on August 7, 2019
