How many national and county government officials are holding stolen money? How many billions of shillings have they stolen?
Between the billions they loot and the little salaries poor Kenyans earn, which one is more important? Which one is ballooning the wage bill?
Is it the money being stolen or the money being paid to public servants?
In most cases, these public servants are not even getting this money.
In counties like Nyamira, workers have not been paid for three months. In Marsabit, the situation is the same.
Counties are not paying their workers, hardworking Kenyans.
When someone has stolen millions, and you hear there is no money to give to Kenyans earning Sh18,000, that is the irony.
And we are going to have a major industrial action in our health sector. All health workers will go on strike.
All health trade unions are going to have a press conference at Ngong Hills Hotel on Thursday.
We are tired. We have been reduced to beggars. It is not health workers alone.
Even the Kenya County Government Workers Union has called a strike.
We will have to come together as public servants working in the county governments. We have been reduced to beggars and cannot accept it.
When we take loans, those loans are paid. Most of us have been blacklisted by Credit Reference Bureaus.
We cannot access medical services because the cover has not been paid. Even NHIF is not being paid. All statutory deductions have not been remitted.
Despite the stealing by government officials, it is high time we asked ourselves: has devolution served the purpose?
How sustainable is this system of government, looking at the economy? Are we able to sustain this ballooned government?
I keep referring to California, an American state whose economy is bigger than Africa’s. It has only one senator and one governor. And they earn a salary equivalent to a Member of Parliament.
And Kenya, a small county with a small economy, is struggling with 48 governments and several ministers who are equally earning very high.
So, before they talk about the wage bill, they must first stop looting public funds.
Kenya National Union of Nurses secretary general spoke to the Star
