Mombasa wage bill soars, puts Governor Hassan Joho in dilemma as workers protest over pay

By PATRICK BEJA

MOMBASA; KENYA: Mombasa county government faces multiple challenges that appear to have shaken it to the core.

Even as Governor Hassan Joho completed the list of his 10-member Cabinet and commissioned the county Public Service Board last Wednesday, trouble still stalked him. County workers have paralysed operations after they staged a strike over salary arrears.

He is also struggling to recover prime housing estates reportedly auctioned by creditors over debts incurred by the former Mombasa Municipal Council mainly to pay workers. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Joho lost a battle at the Court of Appeal where he had applied to try and strike out an electoral challenge by Suleiman Shahbal, who lost in the March 4 gubernatorial race.

Joho failed to strike out the petition in the court on grounds it was filed late and rushed to the Court of Appeal, which upheld the earlier ruling. On Thursday his lawyers said they would challenge the appellate court’s findings in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the debt burden at the Mombasa County government has risen to Sh3.4 billion, putting a strain on development priorities even as the Governor puts together a vibrant team to shape up the county. While witnessing the swearing in of member of the county Public Service Board and three county executive members at his office, the Governor remarked: “Service delivery comes with a lot of responsibilities and challenges. Some of us are already feeling the heat.”

Court order

Joho has so far secured a court order stopping the strike by 2,600 workers but some have defied the directive pointing to possible politics of Kenya’s second largest city at play.

In 1999, influential politicians and businessmen reportedly worked behind the scenes to hound out of office the then charismatic Mayor Najib Balala after councillors withdrew support and isolated him for a month, forcing him to resign.

This was even after Balala had transformed the coastal town to greater heights to which he received accolades countrywide.

Mr Balala’s successor as mayor and now Likoni MP Masoud Mwahima later fell out of favour with the kingmakers who saw him arrested and unceremoniously bundled out of office.

It is not yet clear whether powerful forces in Mombasa are behind Mr Joho’s tribulations, but some observers say the workers’ strike is unusual and could be motivated by political and business rivals out to ensure Joho’s ambitious programmes are thwarted.

Mr Joho’s troubles with the workers became clear long before he was sworn into office when employees of the defunct Mombasa Municipal Council downed tools for two weeks demanding to be paid two months’ salary arrears.

And for several weeks now, Mr Joho has been struggling to end a devastating strike, as the workers demanded a cumulative Sh320 million in May and June salaries as well as another Sh160 million in five months’ arrears in allowances.

Former union official Margaret Ambasa Kisiengo has been the face of the strike, as the workers appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene and ensure full pay.

“Many of us have not been paid. The piecemeal payment and skipping of some of us is dividing us,” Ms Ambasa had protested, after the strikers held prayers.

The strike has often been blamed on possible incitement by Mr Joho’s political rivals with the Kenya Local Government Workers Union trying to distance itself from it.

Mombasa union branch Secretary Rashid Muteti called off the strike immediately Mr Joho obtained an industrial court order directing him to do so, but workers were hostile with both Mr Muteti and Mr Joho. Meanwhile, it has been alleged that an audit of workers in June unearthed over 1,000 ‘ghost workers’ including those dead, retired, sacked and more in overseas.

Now Mr Joho has hired an audit firm to carry out comprehensive screening of the former council workers, many who are believed to have been employed at the council through influence of politicians.

On Tuesday burglars raided the apartment where employees of the audit firm Ernst& Young, which is conducting the headcount, are staying and stole a computer and other equipment. The intrigues continued unabated this month with workers pouring filth into the town streets at one moment as the governor pleaded for sanity. This prompted Mr Joho to announce the sacking of 1,059 workers who he claimed had participated in the illegal strike in a bid to contain trouble. He later rushed to court to obtain the order stopping the strike.

Striking workers

“I have sacked all the striking workers with immediate effect and we will be using willing youth to clean the city. We will also arrest all those behind the dumping of garbage on the streets,” an angry Mr Joho had warned, as he faced his major political test in his few months in office. However, he had to back-track hours later and lift the sacking order.  He replaced the sack order with vetting of the workers to weed out suspected ghost employees and clean the current Sh161 million monthly pay roll.

Joho appears to have settled for his job on a sour note as various creditors seek to be paid their cumulative Sh3.4 billion debt even as he and his executive plead with the national government to take over the huge financial burden inherited from the defunct council.

Flanked by Mr Joho, the County Secretary for Finance Walid Khalid observed on Wednesday: “We can resolve the pay issues for the council workers, but we have no immediate solution to the Sh3.4 billion debt. The national government should take it up.” Mr Khalid suspects the council has had a bloated workforce because some of them are ghost employees and insists hiring of an audit firm Ernst & Young will help clean up the payroll soon.

In the meantime, the county government has been paying the workers in bits amid continued protests and low morale among the staff.

According to Mr Walid, the current monthly wage bill is not sustainable because the council monthly revenue stood at between Sh40 million and Sh50 million before the governor took over. It now stands at about Sh140 million a month.

Mr Walid says they will resolve the workers’ pay through raising revenues instead of borrowing from commercial banks and resorting to overdrafts like the defunct council, which resulted to huge debts and sale of prime property.

“Already revenue collection has improved and we want to sustain it. By September, the governor and county executive wish to pay workers by 25th of every month,” Mr Walid says.

He claimed some of those leading the strike were not council workers but individuals with political interests. “The strike is political; some of those leading it are not employees of the council. I urge politicians to give us a chance to do our job,” he said.

He noted that the county government was currently fighting for its prime housing estates targeted for sale by creditors following huge debts incurred by the council over the years. The workers’ pension fund –Laptrust- auctioned Changamwe housing estate with 300 flats following Sh382.36 million debt while the

National Housing Corporation sold Jomo Kenyatta estate at Sh310 million. Now, a commercial bank wants to sell the more than Sh1 billion Buxton estate over a Sh150 million loan. The council had borrowed Sh110 million at an interest of 30 per cent to settle workers’ pay.

According to Mr Khalid,  Tudor, Khadija, Changamwe phase 1 to 4, Nyerere and Likoni estates are also being shielded from creditors who want to auction the prime properties. The National Land Commission (NLC) chairman Mohamed Swazuri has confirmed the loss of prime property has been reported to the commission and was closely working with the county government to recover it.

Mr Joho has vowed not to let the assets of Mombasa residents get lost by being sold at a throw away price.