Nairobi News

Kisii governor Simba Arati has accused his predecessor James Ongwae of engaging a bloated workforce at the expense of development projects and service delivery.

Arati spoke at the Gusii stadium on Thursday, moments after inspecting the county drivers department.

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The inspection came amid a separate allegation by the county chief that the county had employed 256 drivers to take charge of 82 vehicles.

During the inspection, the drivers were each required to show their driving licenses and to respond to whether the vehicles have been serviced or not.

The youthful Arati then called the drivers one after another in a bid to identify what he referred to as ghost workers.

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“There are cartels who withdraw money and benefit monthly from their comfort zones. Such things have to stop. This is why I ordered the inspection to be done just to ensure that all the people on the payroll match the number of vehicles we have in this county,” he vowed.

The governor claims the county loses more than Sh5 million a month through the ghost drivers.

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“It is clear that the county government loses a huge amount of money paying unknown workers. However, I do not blame the people who presented themselves before me without vehicles. I blame who employed them.”

“There are people who deserve a promotion but they end up staying in the same position because of cartels. We even found a 72-year-old man on the payroll. Such must be stopped.”

He is expected to give a detailed report soon regarding the inspection.