Homa Bay contractors petition Kajwang to intervene over pending bills

Homa Bay County Senator Moses Kajwang.' [File, Standard]

Contractors in Homa Bay County have accused Senator Moses Kajwang' of failing to push Governor Gladys Wanga's government to clear pending bills.

They claimed that Kajwang has failed to defend the interests of small contractors and suppliers in the county, who are suffering because of pending bills.

Homa Bay County Contractors Association Organisation Secretary Peter Brown challenged the senator to fight for them with the same zeal he portrays when handling cases from other counties.

"Kajwang is very vocal on issues affecting other counties, but quiet on ours. We appeal to him to intervene and help us as he does for other counties," said Brown.

Kajwang is the chairperson of the Senate County Public Accounts Committee, which oversees the expenditure of all 47 county governments.

On Sunday, the contractors in Homa Bay, led by the association chair, Collins Omito, said the county owes them over Sh480 million for services rendered.

Omito regretted that the debt had accumulated since 2013. The association gave the county government one week to pay the pending bills.

"Some of us cannot provide for our families three meals in a day. The county has one week to pay us or give us clear communication on how we will be paid," he said.

He said their members are being auctioned by financial institutions over failure to service the loans they borrowed to offer services to the county government.

Secretary General Kennedy Aloso said the county government had not communicated when they will be paid.

"Our efforts to get a payment plan from the county have not yielded any fruit. Sometimes, some of us are paid too little money while others are not paid," Aloso said.

Homa Bay County Executive Committee (CEC) member for Finance, Solomon Obiero, accused the contractors of misleading the public.

Obiero claimed that since Governor Wanga came to office, the county has been consistent in the payment of the pending bills whenever it received its equitable share from the national government.

"We have evidence to show the contractors that we have been paying pending bills every time we get capitation from the national government. We have paid both the historical and current pending bills," said Obiero.

He said when Wanga's administration took office in 2022, they found pending bills of more than Sh1.5 billion, but they had reduced the same significantly.

"There is no government that does not have pending bills. Let the contractors engage us in conversations so that we address their grievances," Obiero added.