Kiambu government has come under fire over its plan to hire assistants administrators and drivers despite the bulging wage bill.
On Tuesday, Juja MP Francis Munyua said the county was employing more workers and creating new positions and yet is it unable to manage its current workforce.
He noted that what the government should do is consider a pay cut for its seniors including the governor instead of introducing new posts that will call for more salaries.
He said the county government will be forced to spend more on salaries instead of development and service delivery.
Speaking in Kimuchu, the legislator said that there is a tendency for counties to misappropriate funds by diverting them to insignificant projects.
According to Kiambu Chief of Staff Eng Sammy Onyango, the county plans to recruit over 72 assistant administrators who will stand in for the recently employed ward and sub-county administrators whenever they are absent for any reason in the respective offices.
The county is also hiring over 72 administrator drivers a move that the chief of staff said has created employment for residents in Kiambu.
Hovewer, Munyua said the introduction of the assistants will result in supremacy wars considering there is a ward manager, ward administrator and the MCA all in the same ward.
“All these people will end up fighting. You cannot introduce four people in one ward and all are doing the same job and expect that they will not fight for supremacy. Let’s work to reduce the wage bill before employing other workers,” he said.
“There is a looming strike because the doctors have not been paid and yet we are going ahead to employ other staff. Where is the money to pay these people coming from yet we return funds to the national government without investing in development projects at the grassroots?” posed Munyua.