Counties

Nairobi County workers issue 21-day strike notice

kananu

Nairobi Governor Ann Kananu. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Nairobi County workers have given City Hall 21 days to pay them more than Sh560 million pending salaries and remit statutory deductions or they down their tools.

The more than 12,000 staff have accused the Ann Kananu-led administration of diverting the funds to unauthorised expenditures.

The diverted funds include statutory deductions and union dues amounting to Sh490.47 million between October and December 2021 as well as staff claims for the month of January 2022 totaling Sh70 million.

Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU) Secretary-General Roba Duba said the county government has three weeks to immediately remit all the deductions without any further delay failure to which they will resort to industrial action.

“Be warned, failure to pay all the deductions within 21 days will leave us with no option but to institute serious industrial action you holding, the concerned officers personally responsible as to attendant consequences thereof,” said Mr Duba in a statement.

The KCGWU boss accused City Hall of failing to remit the staff statutory deductions and Union dues despite making a requisition to the Controller of Budget (CoB).

He said the county's failure to remit deductions has subjected workers to untold suffering with banks penalising those who have loans. 

The union has also called for investigation and audit of the county government’s expenditure during the period under focus.

Further, the union has called upon the Controller of Budget Dr Margaret Nyakang’o to conduct an investigation and audit of the work plans for the months of October, November and December 2021 to ascertain that public money was used prudently.