At least Sh33 million allocated to pay casual workers in the 2015-2016 financial year cannot be accounted for, an audit report of Nakuru County Assembly has revealed.
Beatrice Nyawira, the chairperson of the sectoral committee on environment, said although the money was allocated in the supplementary budget and wired to an account of the Department of Environment, casual workers were not paid.
Common feature
Ms Nyawira, a nominated Member of the County Assembly, told the House that members of her committee were shocked to learn that garbage in the central business district was not being collected because of non-payment of wages.
“After we went round this town, we discovered there were heaps of uncollected garbage everywhere,” said the MCA, who tabled the committee report following a public outcry over poor sanitation in the county.
The report blamed poor sanitation in major towns in the county on non-payment of casual labourers engaged to collect garbage.
Residents in the urban centres had complained about uncollected garbage, accusing the county government of neglecting those areas.
For several months, heaps of garbage have been a common feature in urban centres, especially Nakuru town.
Nyawira told the House on Wednesday that the committee visited Nasha Square and Bondeni market in Nakuru town. She said they discovered that garbage was not being collected daily as it should be.
Nyawira said the Department of Environment was to blame for the heaps of garbage in the town.
She also demanded to know where Sh33 million, which was allocated to pay casual workers, went. She maintained that during the making of the supplementary budget, the money was allocated and wired to the environment department yet casual workers had gone for months without being paid.
Workers not paid
“We allocated Sh33 million to the Ministry of Environment but after investigating, we discovered garbage was not being collected because casual workers were not being paid,” she said.
Nyawira said the environment department was doing a lot of disservice to Nakuru residents.
She said the problem of garbage not being collected was also being experienced in Molo, Naivasha and Njoro constituencies.
“Residents in Nakuru, Naivasha, Molo, Rongai, Olenguruaone, Bahati and Subukia towns risk contracting deadly diseases from uncollected garbage,” she added.