Assembly launches probe on creation of illegal jobs under the Governor’s office

Nyandarua Governor Francis Kimemia launched the probe to find the legally employed civil servants in the County. [File, Standard]

The Nyandarua County Assembly has launched a probe into the legality of the employment of some civil servants in Nyandarua County Governor Francis Kimemia’s office.

On Thursday the CEC in charge of Public Administration and ICT Mbataru Kariuki was at pains to explain why the County Government had created illegal job positions among them sub County and ward coordinators.

Also being probed are eleven positions under the Governor’s office whose occupants do not meet the relevant qualifications.

They are the Director of Public Relations in the office Chege Thiari, Director of Communications James Gititi, information officers Moses Marite and Martin Ngugi.

Others are Mwangi Kagwe, Jane Mugambi, Peter King’ori, Bishop John Kairu, Njogu Mwangi, Philip King’ori and Dr. Peter Gakunu.

Mbataru could not explain why the said Sub Countyand ward coordinators were implementing government programs.

When asked which vote head pays them, Mbataru said these officers were inherited from the past regime and are not on salary.

But the Assembly Speaker Wahome Ndegwa put him to task saying some authoritative sources had indicated that ward coordinators were receiving a salary of Sh15, 000 while the sub County administrators were receiving Sh40, 000.

“These positions are illegal and we want the executive to explain to the assembly which vote head pays all these employees. The assembly will play its oversight role and have the matter solved,” said Ndegwa.

He questioned why there were ward and sub County coordinators and at the same time there were ward and sub County administrators.

Some of these administrators have in the past complained that their roles had been taken over by the coordinators.

“We are being undermined as our roles have been taken over by the coordinators. They are the ones organizing governor’s functions instead of us. We feel intimidated by these new development,” said one of the sub County administrators who sought anonymity for fear of being victimized.

The assembly also want the Governor’s office to explain why the eleven employees in the governor’s office had not met the relevant qualifications.

Meanwhile, the County Assembly is contemplating to remove allocation for the department of the County Attorney whose chief officer is said to be working in acting capacity.

“The Governor has no such powers and in fact the officers are putting themselves to a risk of being surcharged. As an Assembly we shall be frowning to any action not within the law,” said the Speaker.