Clan elders earn salaries from county

More than 50 elders whose job description is not known are in the county government's payroll, a document has revealed.

According to the leaked payroll, the elders are paid between Sh40,000 and Sh120,000. This, even as the county administration struggles with a bloated wage bill and inadequate skilled personnel.

The county was recently in a spot after it emerged that hospitals lacked doctors and schools equipment. An acute shortage of water has seen residents hold demonstrations, with the county government saying there are no funds to drill boreholes.

Sources in the county administration yesterday told The Standard the elders, some as old as 70 years, were comfortably earning salaries without being assigned to any department.

Those in the leaked payroll are prominent clan elders and political allies to the current administration.

Recently, local leaders put to task county officials who were asked to explain unprocedural recruitment of staff. This is after it emerged that several graduates had been overlooked while unqualified people were hired.

Efforts to get a comment from the County Secretary Abdi Sheikh were futile, as he declined and instead referred us to the human resources department, where no one was available to comment.

On July 26, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji directed the Inspector General of Police to investigate the misappropriation of funds at the county.

Khalif Abdi, the Northern Forum for Democracy Coordinator said he was unhappy that there were so many jobless graduates yet unqualified people are earning salaries at the county.

“We demand investigations. We need to know how these elders got into the payroll. What value are they adding to public service delivery? Someone must be held liable,” Mr Abdi said.