Governor Mwadime pledges to pay 1400 CHPs six-month stipend

When Taita Taveta governor Andrew Mwadime appeared before the CPAC committee at the Bunge Towers,Parliament, Nairobi. [Elvis Ogina ,Standard]

Taita Taveta Governor Andrew Mwadime has promised to pay the stipend arrears of 1400 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) this week after a year of waiting and disappointment.

The CHPs were supposed to have received a monthly salary of Sh5000 each, with the county and national governments each contributing half of that amount.

However, the national government has been paying its share while the county has not been remitting its half since the inception of the programme a year ago.

Last month, dozens of CHPs stormed the Taita Taveta county assembly to demand their stipend payment by the county administration.

The CHPs, mainly from Wundanyi constituency, told the county assembly members that the county administration owed them a 13-month stipend.

"We will withdraw our services in the region if we are not paid our arrears for 13 months. We have children to feed and educate and failure to pay us our paltry stipend has impacted negatively on our lives, " warned Johnston Mwatoa, one of the affected CHPs.

He said they have gone without pay for over one year since they were put on payroll.

"Despite lack of pay and logistic hurdles, we have been struggling to better our community but the county government has been ignoring us by denying us our pay. This is very discouraging," noted Mwatoa.

On Thursday, Governor Mwadime guaranteed the protesting workers that they will receive their six-month stipend before the end of this week.

"This county is among 11 marginalized counties that have been receiving low shareable allocation from the national government. I have looked for some funds and will pay six-month stipend arrears this week," Mwadime assured.

The protest over delayed payment comes at a time when the county is still grappling with low revenue collection, huge pending bills and bloated workforce that has badly affected delivery of quality services.

It also comes at a time when the county administration has been accused of failing to remit loan deductions and monthly savings for its staff, amounting to millions of shillings.