Nakuru MCAs pass motion to stop illegal recruitment of 130 workers

Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua [Photo: Courtesy]

The county assembly has recommended that the enforcement officers illegally recruited early this year be sacked.

Members yesterday voted unanimously to adopt an improved version of the Budget and Appropriation Committee report (2017-2018) tabled before the house by the chairman, Moses Ndung'u, of Elementaita ward.

The report that was complementary to an earlier one tabled before the house last month stated that the county public service board violated Section 119 (3) of the Public Finance Management Act 2015 by recruiting the workers without a budgetary provision.

"Allowing this recruitment to go on will only serve to perpetuate the culture of impunity, rot, and abuse of law and bolster recruitment cartels," stated the report.

Recruitment cartels

The adoption of the report by the house came when the enforcement officers had just started training at Soilo in Njoro.

The MCAs resolved that since the recruitment did not meet the legal and integrity threshold, the appointment letters issued to the new staff be revoked.

Contributing to the motion, Subukia Ward MCA Muchiri Njoroge proposed that the members of the County Public Service Board responsible for the illegal recruitment be surcharged for the cost incurred on the enforcement officers.

"We cannot have an employment agency that keeps on disregarding the rule of law, knowing very well that there was no budget allocation for what they were doing. That is pure impunity and must be stopped," Mr Njoroge said.

Maella MCA Mujinga Kariuki, who supported the motion, noted that the county government should have prioritised hiring 300 health workers currently working as casual employees instead of hiring enforcement officers.

An ad hoc committee formed by Speaker Susan Kihika to investigate the recruitment revealed an intricate web set up by a cartel that sexually preyed on jobless youth and lined their pockets with bribes for non-existent jobs.