[Garissa Governor Ali Korane. He has sacked over 2,000 employees who were employed under the former county governor Nathif Jama.] ( Photo/star.co.ke)
Garissa Governor Ali Korane has laid off over 2,000 county casual workers amidst protest from those affected.
Through County Communication Director, Governor Korane said the programme not only lacked legal frame work to formulize its operations, but also did not have proper budget allocations to sustain the employees.
The workers who were employed by former Governor Nathif Jama under the famous ‘ugatuzi na kazi’ have been engaged to do various manual jobs including bush clearing. “Sadly in the establishing the initiative, the former administration failed to meet proper structure for monitoring and supervision to ascertain their effectiveness in service delivery,” said the county communication director Mr Abubakar Dayah.Former Governor Nathif Jama had employed the casual labourers with an aim of engaging youth and women to undertake community service at the sub-county level.Korane however said his office in consultation with the county executive will initiate a community service with proper legal frame work and seek endorsement from the county assembly, adding that the current program lacked workable formula and terms of engagement.The latest move by the governor is likely to draw protest among those affected since the announcement comes just days after causal labourers demonstrated at the governor’s office demanding payment of their two months’ salary.Mama Halima Ali who was among those affected said their social economic have been boasted following the programme as most of them are breadwinners of their families.“We have not been paid for the last two months, this money has assisted many poor families and we would like the governor not to abolish the program completely as it will affect many households,” she said as quoted by the Nation. Recently, Jama has dared Governor Korane to sack county Government employees saying they were legally recruited through County Public Service Board therefore if dismissed they will challenge in a court of law.However Governor Korane argued that bloated human workforce has contributed to unsustainable wage bill to a tune of 5.4billion yearly, which he said has serious implications on development programmes as 69 per cent of annual budget goes to recurrent budget only.A day after he was sworn into office, Mr Korane has demanded all county staff establishment from County Public Service Board with view of reviewing the number of county work force.Jama’s administration was dogged with allegations that the county work force is full of ‘ghost workers’ who were drawing salary illegally.