Reduce county staff, MP urges governors

An MP has accused county governments of extravagance, saying, they are multiplying irrelevant positions.

Emurua Dikkir MP Jonah Ngeno called for the scrapping of some positions in county governments to help reduce the wage bill.

According to Mr Ngeno, there were “no serious reasons” why county executive committee members who run various departments should have chief officers, an equivalent of principal secretaries at the national government.

COUNTY ATTORNEY GENERALS

He joked that some counties could soon recruit legal officers to play a similar role to that played by the Attorney-General.

“County governments are not helping to reduce the wage bill. We want a lean government in counties not extravagance,” he said.

The legislator called on Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) to clamp down on needless appointments as part of their oversight role.

Among the positions that Mr Ngeno wants scrapped is that of ward administrators.

“We do not need ward administrators as they are likely to duplicate the roles of MCAs,” the MP said during a fundraiser in Kipsolu Village, Bureti Constituency.

He proposed that the number of county executives be reduced. Each constituency in a county should have one executive, the MP proposed.

Mr Ngeno hit out at some county bosses, including Narok Governor Samuel Tunai, for allegedly ignoring some constituencies while launching development projects for political reasons.

He added that MCAs knew the needs of county residents and asked them to play a bigger role in the sharing of public funds by drafting the necessary Bills.

WHAT'S ALLEGED
Governors ‘playing politics’

Favouritism: Mr Ngeno accused Governor Tunai of favouring some areas and neglecting those that did not vote for him.

Allocations: Unless cash is distributed fairly, the MP said, marginalised areas will suffer.