Governor falls out with public service board, petitions for its disbandment

Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi has fallen out with the public service board.

Consequently, he has petitioned it to be disbanded, citing incompetence and unprofessional conduct in hiring staff and in service provision.

In his petition to the county assembly during his first address yesterday, the governor accused the board of using partisan methods to hire county staff.

Board vice chairman Naftaly Karangu was accused of holding three public service jobs at the same time.

Mr Karangu is said to have been the chairman of the Nyahururu Water Company as well as the County Procurement Committee while he was still serving on the public service board as vice chairman.

"The board has been paying private club membership and giving extraneous allowances to the vice chairman to the extent that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) had to intervene to stop the payments,” said Mr Muriithi.

The governor accused the board for poor representation of marginalised groups in hiring staff and also lack of ethnic and regional balance.

“How did it happen that 79 per cent of the workforce are from one community? There is no chief officer from the Turkana community that was shortlisted,” he said.

Muriithi said it was appalling that the board had imposed former chief officers on the new count regime by shortlisting them.

“The same officers they want back in office are responsible for the more than Sh500 million pending bills for fictitious projects,” he said.

The officers are alleged to be compelling the county government to settle the bills despite there being non-existent or incomplete projects.

The board was also put on the spot for issuing contracts to county staff for time exceeding the former governor’s tenure.

Muriithi told the assembly that two officers who served in the previous regime refused to vacate office when he (Muriithi) took over and instead sued the governor for "unlawful dismissal".

“The board wrote to the executive and said that they did not know when the former governor’s term would end hence they issued contracts to staff for time exceeding his term,” Muriithi told the assembly.

He said in some jobs, the board hired multiple office holders for one office.

“There is a director of livestock production and a county director of livestock production. The veterinary service department is also headed by two directors,” he said.

The board was also accused of not conducting a single staff performance appraisal for the five years it had been in office.

When reached for comment, board chairperson Mary Mutonyi declined to speak to The Standard.

Karangu said he knew nothing about the allegations.