Fresh paralysis in Joho government as Chief Officers leave office today

Mombasa Governor Ali Joho with his Chief Officer Finance Asha Abdi when they appeared before the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee. [Boniface Okendo/Standard]

There is anxiety over operations at the county government as 17 county chief officers leave office today at the end of their two-year contract.

The absence of a County Public Service Board to hire new officers has compounded the confusion at the devolved unit.

Mombasa has had no board since 2018 and the process of reconstituting it or vetting new County Executive Committee members has been delayed because members of the County Assembly have been on recess since December.

Governor Hassan Joho (pictured), who has been blamed for the widening paralysis within the county administration, has not commented on the matter since it began mid last November when his entire Cabinet left office at the expiry of a two-year contract.

Mombasa County has 20 chief officers.

Sources said most of the chief officers are the accounting officers, and hence services could grind to a halt unless Joho's administration moves with speed to fill the vacuum.

County government officials allayed the fears, saying the contracts could be renewed by end of today to ensure continued delivery of services.

When contacted for comment yesterday, County Secretary Dennis Lewa downplayed the issue, saying they were in control of the situation.

“Things are in place. We are in full control of the situation. There is no vacuum in the county government. We will issue an official communication tomorrow (today) on the issue,” Lewa said.

Way forward

County Director of Communication Richard Chacha said last evening that the matter would be handled today, adding that some departments have been consolidated.

Mr Chacha also said that some of the contracts for chief officers are yet to expire.

“The contracts of chief officers do not end at the same time. Those that end tomorrow (today) will be sorted before close of business. There is no vacuum in government,” he said.

The county chief officers are Jaffar Mohsen, Abdulrahman Mbarak, Asha Abdi, Tuni Mwalukumbi, Jeophita Mwajuma, Albert Keno, Aisha Abubakar, Khadija Shikely, Ilhan Abbas, Rozina Wasoi, Uzel Mzera, Rajab Babu, Juliana Cherera, Khamis Kurichwa, Justina Mwikya and Thomas Moyo.

Last week, Joho named a partial cabinet after he sent home all members in November last year. Some civil society organisations have threatened to challenge the legality of the partial cabinet in court.

 

The CECs who were retained are Maryam Mbaruk of Finance, Hazel Koitaba (Health), Dr Godfrey Nato (Environment) and Taufiq Balala who was moved from the Transport department to Water and Sanitation.

The two-year contracts of the county executives expired on November 12, last year. For two months there was no CEC and officials argued that service delivery could not be affected because chief officers were in charge of key departments.

Haki Africa Executive Director Khalid Hussein has said the habit of keeping key positions vacant for a long should be encouraged.

“A situation where key positions are left vacant for long should not be encouraged. As Haki Africa, we are calling on the governor to move with speed and appoint all CECs,” Mr Hussein said.

Muslim for Human Rights (Muhuri) Director Khalifa Khalef yesterday told the governor to hasten the appointment to ensure service delivery does not suffer.