City Hall casuals to quit over five-month wages delay

City Hall, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Over 800 City Hall casuals have threatened to quit over delays in payment of their wages by the county government.

The casual workers, attached to the Environment department, on Monday camped at City Hall demanding payment of their delayed dues for between five and seven months.

They were later dispersed by police.

The group accused Governor Mike Sonko and his Environment executive Vesca Kangogo of playing hide-and-seek with them and threatened to resign if the devolved unit does not release their payments. “Going five months without payment is not easy. It is our right to be paid and we will not allow anyone to play around with our salaries. We have loans, rent and school fees to pay,” said Embakasi Group chairman Mwangi Kuria.

The county government has engaged about 850 casuals who are paid around Sh20,000 per month.

However, Mr Sonko has defended the county, saying the delay was occasioned by a hold up of approval of the payments by the Controller of Budget (COB) who had asked for more information over the casuals, including their contracts and payroll status. “As you may be aware, I have banned all on-source spending and all county money is banked and swept to the Central Bank. For any expenditure in Nairobi City, the COB approval has to be obtained for CBK to release the funds,” said Mr Sonko on his Facebook account.