Deputy speakers are ‘ghost’ workers, Kiambu MCAs declare

By Eric Wainaina

Kiambu, Kenya: A section of Kiambu Members of the County Assembly want the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to cease payment of salaries to the county assembly deputy speakers saying the office is illegal.

Ngewa MCA Karungo Wa Thangwa and his Sigona counterpart Mutonya Njenga (right), said the government has been wasting resources by paying extra salaries to 47 MCAs who hold the deputy speaker’s post.

The position, according to the two, is not supposed to be there as both the Constitution and the County Government Act has no provision for it.

According to Article 178 of the County Government Act, a sitting of the county assembly shall be presided over by the Speaker of the Assembly; or in the absence of the Speaker, another member of the assembly elected by the assembly.

“President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy made a very good gesture of cutting down their salaries to cut the wage bill but even as he does so, the Government has been paying over Sh300,000 each to 47 ghost workers in the name of deputy speakers,” Mr Karungo said during a fundraiser at Kamirithu, Limuru.

Mr Mutonya said they would invoke Article 191 of the County Government Act and petition the county assembly to through a committee to summon SRC Chairperson Sarah Serem to give an explanation.

They also accused the governors of trying to get insurance by making constant moves to entice them.

Karungo said they were not part of resolutions made by governors during a meeting at Bomas of Kenya last week that MCAs should be paid handsomely and be given car grants.

“They basically want to entice us because they have hidden motives. When MCAs were on a go-slow over salaries, they kept quiet. In Kiambu for instance, the governor declined to assent to the Finance Bill because MCAs had awarded themselves car grants,” he said.

Mutonya said governors are trying to incite them against MPs and senators, a situation he said they will not be part of.