The Nairobi City County wants to whittle down its workforce from 13,000 to only 7,000 in order to meet its development agenda, the Governor Evans Kidero said in Mombasa on Tuesday.
Addressing the county Select Committee on Implementation at Voyager Beach Resort during the official opening of a four days’ workshop, Dr Kidero said the bloated workforce had been a major constraint to the county’s development.
“The huge workforce guzzle up to 78 per cent of all our revenue leaving very little for development. In actual sense, we need only about 7,000 workers,” he said adding that this coupled with a slow release and allocation of funds had made it difficult for the county to plan, budget and execute its agenda.
The Governor revealed further tribulations saying the county government was worse off than the defunct Nairobi City Council in terms of revenue collection.
At the same time, the Governor wants legislation enacted by the County Assembly to compel the national government to pay Sh62 billion it owes to the county government.
He said that the national government had blatantly refused to pay land rates, rent, car park fees, licenses “and even for the land they stole from us”.
“When we fail to pay them, they close our bank accounts or disconnect our electricity or water supply. But we cannot do the same. The only way we can do it is through the law and therefore, it’s prudent to formulate such legislation to compel them to pay,” he said.
The workshop that brings together Members of County Assembly (MCAs) and executives was called to analyse Bills, motions passed by the County Assembly in 2015 and reports on committees’ recommendations.
Korogocho MCA Maxwel Ochar suggested at the workshop that the county forms and dispatch a committee to State House to discuss the issue of the debt with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“I suggest that we form a committee to State House to petition President Uhuru Kenyatta who, like Mr Kidero, is not a wheeler-dealer. I know he will listen to us and we will get something if not all the Sh62 billion,” said Mr Ochar.
But the Governor dismissed the suggestion saying doing so was like reducing the county to a beggar of the national government.
“We cannot be beggars. We cannot beg that which is rightfully ours. We should pursue this thing legally and follow what the law says”, he said.
At one time, there was a moment of anxiety when Laini Saba/Kibera MCA David Kitavi challenged the Governor on what outstanding achievement he had done in the city county.
“When we go to bench-mark in other counties, we find that our colleagues have built ECDs, hospitals, roads and other facilities. But in Nairobi, what have we done that can make us proud,” asked the MCA.
The Governor told him off saying as an MCA in the County Assembly “you should have seen our achievements because if you cannot see them, how will an outsider be able to see?”
Mr Kidero hailed the County Assembly for passing 16 crucial and priority Bills and MCAs as well as executives saying they had been able to achieve much in their four years in office “despite the meagre resources” and a host of other challenges.
