Governor Kahiga ‘to shut down his govt on Friday’ due to cash crunch

Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga has vowed to send workers employed by the county government home should the National Treasury fail to remit funds by Friday. 

Speaking at Nyeri Town Hall, the governor said the delays had affected the payment of staff salaries, contractors as well as buying of medicine besides other county affairs.

"I will be sending my workers home so that they can rest because I do not have money to run the county. Some of them do not even have fare to come to work. They can resume duty once I have money," he said.

He called on National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u to release monies to avert looming extreme crises such as doctors going on strike and patients dying due to lack of medicine.

"Not remitting the money to county governments is akin to wanting them shut down or making the devolved units action-less and with no mandate or authority, " he said. 

"This is not acceptable by law because once taxes are collected, the National Treasury after offsetting a percentage of the national debt should remit monies to counties which should not be less than 15 per cent of national revenue," he added. 

Governor Kahiga further stated that the counties last received the money in March, noting that some devolved units have resorted to borrowing from financial institutions, which is expensive.

"Following this route is pointless...we might pay salaries but there's nothing else we can do within the county," he warned. 

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