Members of the Uasin Gishu County Assembly now want the executive to rescind its decision to terminate contracts for all casual workers.
The MCAs said the move was ill-advised as it has affected service delivery of key sectors in the county.
In a motion moved by Olare/Ainabkoi MCA Gilbert Chepkong’a, the ward representative said the Department of Public Service Management should move with speed and hire casual workers.
The MCA named health, environment, water and agriculture among the most affected departments.
“There is a serious shortage of staff in almost all departments and we urge the relevant department to consider the engagement of casuals to improve service delivery,” said Chepkong’a when moving the motion.
The MCA further said already over Ksh60.3 million had already been allocated in the current budget to facilitate the employment of casuals.
Ghost workers in Uasin Gishu
Contracts for hundreds of Uasin Gishu staff were terminated months into Governor Jonathan Bii Chelilim’s administration.
At the time, the county boss said the move was meant to facilitate cleaning up of the staff register and rid of ghost workers.
But according to Moi’s Bridge MCA Patrick Kimeli, by now the exercise should have been concluded and the casuals rehired.
“Time is moving. If we allow this condition to continue, we will lose the money that had been allocated to hire the casuals and also lose the trust of the people because of the lack of services to them,” Kimeli said.
He gave an example of Moi’s Bridge Health Facility which he noted had been affected by a lack of casuals to help with cleaning services.
“The facility serves three counties but it only has one casual, employed by the management who handles all the laundry and kitchen work – which is too much for one person,” said the MCA.
Most of the casuals were involved in offering cleaning and security services in various county-run offices.
Their contracts were terminated alongside those who were serving under the Internship Program initiated during Governor Jackson Mandago’s administration.
