Guards turn the gates on Bungoma county bosses

A section of Bungoma town. [File, Standard]

Guards hired to protect Bungoma County's offices turned the tables on their employer, barring senior officials from entering after going unpaid for seven months.

The officers, contracted through Sniper Security Company, padlocked the main gate at the county headquarters, stranding employees and officials outside the compound.

The guards say the firm has withheld their pay for more than seven months, even as they kept watch over county property and facilities, prompting Wednesday's lockout.

Their repeated appeals to the company and county authorities went unanswered, they said.

"It is heartbreaking that hardworking men and women have gone for over seven months without pay," noted Bungoma Senator David Wakoli Wafula.

"Behind every unpaid salary is a hungry family, unpaid school fees, mounting debts and shattered hopes," he added.

Wakoli urged the county government to act and clear the arrears before the financial year closes.

Cars carrying county officials queued outside the locked gates as onlookers gathered to watch the standoff.

Some officials held brief talks with the guards outside the premises in a bid to end the impasse.

By the afternoon, neither Governor Kenneth Lusaka's office nor the county government had commented on the matter.

The lockout joins a growing list of salary disputes rattling Kenya's public sector this year.

Health workers under the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union and the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers have separately decried arrears of up to three months, while teachers in various counties report similar grievances.