County terminates services of staff employed on contract

The county government has terminated the services of officers hired on contract.

The exact number of the employees who were sent home could not be immediately established.

Governor Sospeter Ojaamong, during the swearing-in of new county executive committee members last Thursday, announced that under-performing staff would be sacked.

However, the county director of communication, Winston Wafula said only officers hired on contract were fired and directed to wait for any further communication.

“They will be told later whether their services will be needed or not, but they have gone home,” said Mr Wafula.

Sources told The Standard that Mr Ojaamong was keen on bringing on board competent people to steer his agenda of leaving a better legacy when his term comes to an end.

“Most of the county employees performed poorly and some of them did not know what they had been hired to do in their departments and ended up lounging in offices,” said the source.

Among those sent home were the legal adviser, the political adviser to the governor, and the economic adviser.

Their positions were advertised in the dailies yesterday.

The governor recently lamented that the county government was spending most of its budgetary allocation from the National Treasury to pay salaries at the expense of development.

A joint report by the Ministry of Devolution and the county said it had excess staff.

Several recommendations were made, including sacking employees to control the ballooning wage bill.

The governor said he would give the new county executive time before starting to evaluate its performance.

He was responding to a call by members of the county assembly to hire the executives on a two-year contract subject to renewal based on performance.

The governor appealed to the MCAs to give the officers time to settle in their new roles before judging their performance.

“They come from different professions, so we have to give them time to see what they can do," he said.