Sonko declines renewal of contracts for 23 chief officers

Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko (pictured) has refused to renew the contracts of all chief officers at City Hall.

The 23 chief officers’ annual contracts expired last week.

Sonko ordered the officers to hand over to respective departmental directors and wait.

The governor’s Communication Director Elkana Jacob said the renewal of the contracts had been put on hold to assess performance.

“Those found to be hard-working will have their contracts renewed,” said Elkana.

In the executive order, Sonko accused some of the employees of advancing personal interests at the expense of service delivery.

A county chief officer is the equivalent of a principal secretary at the national level.

He/she is charged with the day-to-day operations of a department and is answerable to the County Executive Committee Member (CEC) of a particular department.

The chief officer also has the power to deploy a county public officer within a department.

They are also policy administrators and accounting officers of their departments.

In May last year, the county assembly approved the following; Jairus Musumba (Devolution), Winfred Kathangu (Economic Planning), Pauline Kahiga ( Housing), Leboo Morintat (Public Service), Stephen Mwangi (Lands), Mahat Jimale (Public Health), Fredrick Nzioki (Trade) and Justus Kathenge (Urban Planning).

Others are Fredrick Karanja (Roads), the late Richard Kavemba (Transport), David Makori (Environment), Mohamed Abdirahman (Water), Aaron Kibet (ICT), Peter Makhoka (E-government), Mohamed Abdi (Livestock and Fisheries), Anne Muenda (Disaster Management), Mude Ibrahim (Youths and Sports) and Paul Macharia (Tourism).

Lucia Mulwa, the Education chief officer, was promoted to Education CEC. Washington Makodingo (chief officer) was moved to health from agriculture. [J