Junior Taita Taveta County staff denied insurance

VOI: The county administration said yesterday a majority of its employees do not have medical cover due to inadequate funds.

County Secretary Patrick Meso told members of the county assembly (MCAs) that employees in job group A-P were left out in the county's insurance cover, and that only senior officers in group R and above were covered.

Mr Meso said the Sh18 million allocated by the assembly in the 2014-2015 financial year to insure workers was not enough and that the administration decided to cover senior employees only.

"We are unable to insure all the workers because of lack of funds. We need more budgetary allocation to help insure all the workers," the county secretary told the assembly.

"The executive met and decided to insure only 44 senior officers. We cannot afford to award all the workers an insurance cover due to budget constraints and that is why the executive decided to award all directors, County Executive Committee members and their chief officers," he said. The MCAs criticized the county administration for infringing on the workers' rights.