When his employer- the county government of Laikipia- delayed his salary for months, his water and electricity were disconnected. Kevin Githinji pulled a very bold move. He went to the Laikipia County Governor’s office to fetch water.
A video clip of his altercation with the security officers as he pushed his way to a water source in Governor’s compound went viral on social media platforms two months ago. A cancer survivor Kevin’s drama sums up the common agony and desperation of Laikipia county government staff who have worked for months with no salaries.
Desperation, is pushing the workers to the edge as scores of workers can longer fulfil their financial obligations and many of them are drowning in debts.
“Those of us whose families are far away have opted to move in with similarly-affected colleague so that we can split the rent. It’s very tough, because we can no longer support our extended families that depend on our salaries,” affected workers said in Nyahururu.
Ordinarily, one would have expected Kevin’s case to draw empathy and immediate action from the county leadership. It didn’t. Majority of the leadership were too busy campaigning for elective positions in next year’s general election, to listen to see Kevin’s tears.
Governance issues in our county are not improving either. For instance, it is emerging that millions of shillings are reported to have been spent on non-existent projects across the county in the last financial year.
A recent meeting between Laikipia County Executive with members of the county assembly has exposed the massive rot and plunder of public resources at a time when public services have crumbled.
The assembly, which summoned the executive for a meeting at a hotel in the outskirts of Nanyuki, was shocked to find that 70 percent of the projects that the Executive listed to have completed under the 2025/2026 budget were non-existent on the ground.
The massive rip-off has occurred when there have been no services in Laikipia. Health services have literally collapsed- no medicine, crippling labour disputes and demoralized staff. Town streets are choking in filth and county workers have gone for months without pay.
“We went department to department and we realized that 70 per cent of the projects that the departments claim to have completed were not existing,” a highly -placed source said.
This begs the question; where’s the millions of shillings assigned to these non-existent projects.
It’s no longer a secret that the administration is even struggling to pay salaries for hundreds of workers. Millions of shillings are getting lost too through the wage bill which is bloated with ghost workers and political right wingers.
But majority of the senior executives are themselves ghost workers too. They are hardly in the offices but out on the ground campaigning to be elected again. They are always out in political rallies seeking votes for next year’s General Election.
So dire is the situation that the auditor general Nancy Gathungu personally visited the county, three weeks ago, and warned the administration against failure to implement her recommendations to enhance accountability and improve service delivery to citizens.
Despite the loud cry of lack of services from citizens, majority of the senior members of the Executive have abandoned their duty and hit the campaign trail. Many of them are gunning for an elective seat in next year’s General Election.
They include: Governor Joshua Irungu, who had he initially indicated that he’d be running for the senate seat but has lately toned down, perhaps fearing of the limelight on his past tenure at the helm of the county,
County secretary Koinange Wahome who is angling for the governor’s seat on DCP ticket. Health CECM Albert Wagura Taiti also gunning for governorship on DCP. Public Administration CECM Purity Kendi Gitonga is going for the women representative. Her department is in charge of overseeing delivery of service/projects to Laikipians. Finance Chief Officer Daniel Ngumi is the Irungu administration’s purse holder. Every coin – used well or wrongly passes through him. He’s eyeing Laikipia West parliamentary seat on DCP ticket.
Education chief officer Jecinta Segetet Koree is campaigning for Laikipia North parliamentary seat while her Gender, sports and Youth affairs Kenneth Kibara counterpart is running for Laikipia west seat on DCP.
Livestock and veterinary services chief officer Mary Wanja Gichuru is eyeing the women representative seat on DCP ticket while her counterpart in Water and natural resource Samuel Abraham Lemanyshoe is campaigning for Laikipia North.
The scenario presents the answer to the question of where the money allocated to the non-existent projects went.
Where’s the campaign money coming from? Your guess is as good as mine. Meanwhile, citizens continue suffering due to lack of medicine in Laikipia hospitals, staff have been on strike, genuine workers cannot get salaries on time.
