Devolve port services, Senate committee says

Senate Labour and Social Welfare Committee Chairman Johnson Sakaja (right) with Mombasa Senator Mohamed Faki (left) arrive at the Mombasa County Assembly for a meeting with MCAs on Monday. [Omondi Onyango, Standard]

A Senate committee wants ferries and harbours placed under counties to enable the devolved units benefit from their revenue.

Labour Committee Chairman Johnson Sakaja said the role of national government should be setting standards and providing security.

Speaking during a joint sitting with the county assembly’s Labour Committee yesterday, Mr Sakaja said counties should benefit from their natural resources such as minerals, ports, ferries and national parks.

He cited Turkana, which has demanded a certain percentage from oil revenue.

A civil society organisation in Mombasa has already gone to court seeking to have Mombasa port placed under the county government.

“Local counties should have a say in the running of ferries and harbour. The national Government should come in to set standards and provide security,” Sakaja said.

He said torture associated with domestic workers in the Middle East would be a thing of the past following the establishment of the National Employment Authority (Nea) that pursues bilateral agreement in the recruitment of foreign workers.

“I sponsored a Bill in 2015 when I served as a nominated MP, leading to the formation of Nea. This organisation seeks government to government agreement in the recruitment of the domestic workers,” he said.

Recruitment agencies

Last week, Nea chair Winnie Pertet said 88 recruitment agencies had been appointed and would have to be registered with embassies abroad to follow up workers they place on employment in the Middle East.

The domestic workers will also undergo training before taking up employment overseas.

List of employees

Sakaja, who is leading the committee on a tour of Coast counties, said his team would collect a list of employees from public organisations and find out how many residents were employed, insisting 70 per cent should be locals.

He said the committee would find out whether the 30 per cent quota for public procurement jobs allocated to youth, women and the disabled as stipulated in the law.

At the same time, Sakaja, the Nairobi Senator, said the committee had launched investigation into claims that the Standard Gauge Railway had employed Chinese for jobs Kenyans were capable of doing.

Senate support

Assembly Labour Committee chair Renson Thoya sought the Senate support to introduce development funds for MCAs.

But Mombasa senator Mohamed Faki advised the MCAs to focus on the oversight role and seek the implementation of approved projects by the county executive.

“You should focus more on oversight and not development fund. Ensure that the executive implements projects and accounts for funds,” Faki said.

Sakaja told the county assembly to step up oversight efforts on the executive and the county public service board.