By W, KNA
The county government of Nyeri has announced plans to commit 288 county staff on contract to permanent and pensionable terms as a way of saving the money spent in paying their gratuity.
Nyeri governor, Dr. Mutahi Kahiga says that the county is targeting to save about 24 per cent out of the 31 per cent it pays as payment perks to employees at the end of their contract.
Dr. Kahiga said the county is also set to introduce fuel cards for all county vehicles starting end of this month.
He said each vehicle will be allocated a non-transferable fuel money further cutting on the amount spent by the county government on fuel.
This, he said, is among a raft of cost cutting measures that his administration is planning to employ during this financial year to keep the operations running amidst delays by the National Treasury to release the equitable share of revenue moneys to counties.
The governor confirmed that despite the enactment of Division of Revenue Bill 2025 which approved a Sh415 billion allocation as equitable revenue share to counties, the devolved units are still broke.
He said that counties are yet to receive disbursements for the first two months of the current financial year despite reassurance from the Treasury that release of money to counties will be timely.
Kahiga warned that push and pull between the exchequer and the devolved units would persist unless delays in disbursing money to counties, which is negatively affecting service delivery, is addressed.
“The last disbursement was released in June. We are in August and we are waiting for disbursement for July and August as we are still operating on the June disbursement,” stated Kahiga.
“We have a big challenge; conditional grants are also not being released as they should and this is a big problem but we hope we will overcome,” he added.
The governor was however quick to clarify that the push to have extra resources channeled to counties is informed by the rising cost of living.
He said that the only way for the country to realize the desired results of devolution is to financially support county governments to enable them perform their mandate satisfactorily.
“One of the demands that the counties had made was that we receive Sh450 billion because there are statutory deductions to be made, there are promotions that must be affected, there are annual salary increments and there are salaries to be paid.
There are also new levies such as the housing levy which were not budgeted for and which chew into our revenues. If you look at the little money that was added to counties, it is not enough to meet all these demands,” stated Kahiga.
The governor spoke during the signing of the annual performance contracts for county departments.
During the ceremony, held in his office, five water companies operating in the county equally signed their performance contracts with the governor.
“We have been signing performance contracts for the last five years and this is what has helped us to realize success in running this county. With such contracts you can see that even from our scorecard, we are transparent,” Kahiga added.
