Lusaka taken to task over his administration failure to remit Sh549 million

Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka has been put on the spot by the Senate over his administration's failure to remit Sh549 million gratuity owed to former employees of the County Government, which was deducted from their salaries

Lusaka, who appeared before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang, had a difficult time explaining why this was not honoured with Senators saying that it was sad that those who served the county were now suffering.

The Governor told the Committee that the anomaly happened during the tenure of his predecessor and that his administration had set aside Sh130 million to help clear the backlog and that he will take action on officers who might have failed to remit the deducted funds.

“I fully understand the challenges that our former employees are facing with Sh549 million owed to them as gratuity. I promise to take action on officials who deducted the money but failed to remit it with this happening during the tenure of my predecessor,” said Lusaka.

Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo said that it was very unfair for someone to retire from service and stay for more than four years without getting their gratuity payment due to some political reasons, calling on county administrations across the country not to torture their former employees.

The Governor was also taken to task over failure by his administration to provide evidence over some Sh599 million engagement with an insurance broker to provide medical cover for county staff and also for failing to provide them with medical cover between February and May 2O25.

Kajwang pointed out that no list of employees and dependents had been provided with the expenditure of Sh231 million not confirmed, wondering why the county had not considered engaging the services of the Social Health Insurance Fund instead of private providers.

“Instead of paying Sh599 million for medical insurance cover to a private company why has Bungoma County not considered engaging the Social Health Authority if it is working since it was bound to offer cheaper services compared to the other companies,” asked Kajwang.

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna wondered whether the county employees had been consulted before a change of the medical cover provider was effected, while making it clear that no Kenyan can accept being put under SHA medical cover if they had other options.

The Governor was taken to task over the expenditure of Sh3.6 million imprest for Christmas Tree lighting celebrations, which Senators argued was a wasteful expenditure, with Lusaka defending himself that is something that happened in September 2O19.

Kajwang said that crazy expenditure showed the madness that goes on in counties with Bungoma Senator Wafula Wakoli calling on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to revisit the matter and make sure the county official involved in this fraud refunds the taxpayers' money.

“I would like to clarify here that this happened in 2O19 when I was not the Governor in Bungoma, the officer involved was taken to court and is no longer with the county, let this be clear since we have Journalists here and they may pick the wrong information and run away with it,” said Lusaka.

The Governor was also tasked to explain why his administration had increased the wage bill from 47% to 53%, which means they were spending a huge percentage of money on remuneration of employees at the expense of development.

Lusaka said that the county has 7085 employees and that some 463 casual employees had moved to court, which directed that they be recruited on permanent and pensionable terms and that they were doing everything possible to manage the wage bill.

The county administration was asked to explain the delays in the completion of Masinde Muliro Stadium in Bungoma Town which had been allocated Sh807 million and the area residents were concerned about the failure to have the facility ready.

“The Masinde Muliro Stadium is 95% complete, the county administration is engaging with the national government to have the facility completed so that it can be in a good position to compete for the hosting of international sporting events,” said Lusaka.

The Governor assured Senators that his administration was committed to clearing all the legible pending bills,  which were around Sh 3.7 billion.