Hundreds of Siaya county government workers, among them the chairman of the County Public Service Board, have not been paid their salaries for the last two months for lack of personal file numbers.
For this, the County Assembly of Siaya is blaming the county executive’s human resource department for gross inefficiency that has seen more than 500 permanent staff as well as casuals work for years without the numbers that would see them incorporated in the payroll.
During an Assembly session chaired by speaker, George Okode, members lamented that the workers, among them market sweepers and hospital cleaners have been forced to go without salaries for the last two months after the controller of budget stopped manual payment of salaries outside the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database, (IPPD).
The House heard that those tasked with the responsibility of generating the personnel file numbers were tossing the workers from one office the other allegedly in a bid to extort bribes from the desperate staff.
Speaker Okode lamented that gross inefficiency in the Human Resource Department was exposing county government workers to suffering while alleging that the county bosses were enjoying themselves unconcerned about the workers’ plight.
“It is a concern to us, and we want to take action on officers who have slept on the job. Workers’ lives are now rendered so difficult, their doors have been locked because they cannot pay rent, their children have been kicked out of school, and they cannot pay their bills,” lamented the speaker.
Okode called for the streamlining of the operations at the department to enable only responsible officers be allowed access to user rights in the system.
East Ugenya member of the County Assembly, Fredrick Omoro, said it was shameful that senior officers charged with the task of ensuring that their colleagues are paid for work done, were instead exposing them to suffering.
His North Sakwa colleague, Oliver Arika said the delay to generate personal file numbers should not be passed to the national government, adding that the rot was within.
“The staff is always tossed right, left and centre. If you go to the human resource director, she says she is not authorized to initiate and authorize the process” he said adding that there was need to streamline the matter urgently.
The chairman of the Siaya County Public Service Board, Charles Gordon Juma who was among the top officials summoned by the Assembly over the issue stunned the house when he declared that he was one of the victims.
“Come June, 2026, I will be two years without personal file number,” said the chairman.
He said that the board has zeroed in on three officers suspected to be behind the mess adding, “I feel embarrassed that this thing has not been concluded.
The chief officer for Governance and Administration, Walter Okello said the affected staff are owed more than 48 million shillings for March and April, 2026 salaries.
Okello said they were working round the clock to sort out the mess, adding that they have already met with the state department of public service management and worked out modalities of fast tracking the issuance of personal file numbers.
“Following the engagement, we agreed on the timeline of 10/6/2026 to be able to finish the exercise,” he told the Assembly.
In its resolution, the Assembly ordered the matter to be solved before the end of the current financial year so that the workers could be paid their salaries.
“We know that their monies are in the budget up to 30/6/2026 so whatever you are doing, these people must be paid by the end of this financial year,” said speaker Okode.
By Philip Onyango
