Nakuru County Governor Kinuthia Mbugua has said he is not ashamed of the county being ranked poorly on performance by a World Bank report.
Speaking to diplomats from East and Central Africa on Friday at a breakfast meeting in Nakuru, Mbugua attributed the poor performance to the county’s high wage bill.
“Nakuru County had four municipalities in the defunct local governments and it absorbed all workers. This is in addition to other workers from the central government and new staff employed by the county which has bloated the wage bill,” noted Mbugua.
Nakuru County was ranked position 41 out of 47 counties where according to the World Bank Report; the county spent only eight per cent of its income on development.
Kinuthia pointed that, they received Sh 7 billion in the last financial year where Sh 4.5 billion was spent on salaries and wages, leaving very little for development.
Nakuru County Senator James Mungai noted that the county has been among beneficiaries of the largest allocation of funds from the state hence, more was expected.
“Members of the public have a right to demand for accountability of cash allocated to their county. This will help the county governments to be accountable,” said Mungai.
Mungai urged the governor to sack non-performing County Executive Committee (CEC) members as they have failed to implement the bills passed by the county assembly.