It is all the doing of ghost workers, graft, SRC told

By FRED KIBOR

The Government has been asked to rid its institutions of ghost workers besides sealing corruption loopholes as a way to reduce the soaring bill other than slashing its employees’ salaries.

The Government was further asked to privatise State corporations and scrap hefty allowances public servants currently enjoy.

These were among the recommendations given to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) yesterday in Elgeyo/Marakwet County when the team toured the area in the ongoing debate of managing the public wage bill.

The team, led by vice chair Daniel Ogutu, had visited the county to collect the residents’ views on the subject.

Kimutai Chemitei, a youth representative, said the huge wage bill would deny the youth employment opportunities since the Government would not be able to pay them.

“Slashing salaries of public servants would not translate to significant saving,” offered Chemitei.

Endo ward representative Festus Kirop blamed duplication of roles at the counties for the sky rocketing wage bill.

“The Constitution is very clear on the roles of each public servant. But it has not been duly followed and counties are going ahead to employ people on roles that are still held by the national government officials,” he said.

Annual budget

 However the SRC vice chair defended the constitutional bodies from the ballooning expenditure, saying that no government institutions should be blamed for the untenable wage bill since it has been accumulating over time.

“We are now in the process of making sure that we bring down the wage bill to ensure more money is used for development in the country,” said Ogutu.

Local governor Alex Tolgos, who also attended the meeting, said he had frozen hiring of new staff as a way of ensuring more funds were channeled to development.

“Unfortunately only 30 per cent of our budget goes to development but we are focused on ensuring over 60 per cent of our annual budget goes there,” said the governor.

Meanwhile, the county government has been asked to ban farming activities on the high and steep Elgeyo Escarpment following the onset of rains.

The residents said the move would go a long way in preventing landslides and conserving water catchment areas. They said the hanging valley has in the recent past witnessed wanton environmental  destruction escalating chances of landslides and drying up of rivers that supply water to semi-arid Kerio Valley region.

Spiritual intervention

The call comes after the County Executive Committee (CEC) member in charge of Environment and Water, Thomas Ruto, issued an alert on residents living on the hanging valley to be wary of landslides this planting season.

Over a year ago, series of mud slides, which were largely blamed on environmental degradation, hit the Elgeyo escarpment killing 16 people and displaced more than 1,500 others.

It is against this backdrop that the residents have expressed fear, saying that if the ongoing destruction is not addressed immediately, another catastrophe looms.

Jonathan Chesesio, a resident of Kerio Valley, said residents have massively invaded the hanging escarpment carrying out farming activities and charcoal burning thereby exposing soil structure to vagaries of weather.

“The situation is so dire that last weekend we resorted to conduct a prayer session in several churches in a bid to invoke spiritual intervention against those interfering with the escarpment,” said Chesesio.

He said it was up to the local government to put in place by-laws that would prohibit cultivation along the hanging valley as a lasting solution.

“Some of the residents have even encroached on the water catchment areas to carry out crop farming therefore destroying the source,” he said, adding that the destruction of the escarpment was also creating tension in the semi-arid Kerio Valley region.