Governor defends move to suspend officers

Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Alex Tolgos. [Boniface Okendo/Standard]

Governor Alex Tolgos  has defended the decision to suspend all chief officers.

The governor suspended the nine chief accounting officers last Wednesday over what he termed as complaints by contractors who had completed county projects and were denied payments.

The five-year contracts for COs, who have served since 2014, expire next January.

But a week after the surprise move, Mr Tolgos said he discovered the accounting officers were becoming a hindrance to completion of county projects, claiming that they stopped payments for contractors for no reasons, leading to the stalling of several projects.

“What really made me sad is that contractors were being taken in cycles after completing projects, yet money was lying in bank accounts. Some of the contractors complained that they had to part with a lot of money to receive their payments,” Mr Tolgos explained.

He said some of the contractors who had more than one projects would not manage to begin the second project because of non-payments, blaming it on failure to utilise at least Sh600 million between 2013 and 2017.

“I have been holding meetings with my officers and I discovered they were not working to the standards of my employer - the people of Elgeyo Marakwet,” he said.