Residents in Kilifi County have staged protests citing poor service delivery due to random and frequent reshuffles at the county government.
The residents who marched along major roads carrying green leaves and blowing whistles accused Governor Gideon Mung'aro of transferring county officials to cabinet positions they are neither familiar with nor qualified to hold, without proper consultations.
According to the residents, the chaotic reshuffles in the county government's structure have, in turn, led to poor service delivery and slow infrastructural and economic progress.
The residents said that despite the governor claiming to have good intentions with the reshuffles, he is being coerced to execute the decisions by cartels who want to benefit from them at the expense of the residents.
"The governor has been transferring some people from their original positions to other positions where they don't even know their work, and it is not his first time; he is removing good officials from positions they know how to handle, until when?" one resident lamented.
"We love our governor, but the people who are surrounding him, the cartels, we are refusing them, because we are being oppressed in the process," she added.
The protests come almost a week after the county chief made some cabinet reshuffles in his County Executive Committee (CEC).
In a statement on Wednesday, October 22, Mung'aro transferred the Finance and Economic Planning CEC, Yaye Shosi, to the Department of Gender, Sports, Youth, Social Services, Special Programs, and Disaster Management.
Philip Kitsao was appointed as the acting CEC of Finance, while Ruth Masha was transferred from the Gender desk to the Roads Department.
Furthermore, Mung'aro reassigned County Chief Officers to new departments in the reshuffle.
The Governor transferred Samuel Mkutano from the Resource Mobilisation docket to Devolution and Civic Engagement. Christine Mwaka was then moved from the Blue Economy position to Livestock and Public Works.
The Resource Mobilisation docket was taken over by George Mwangiri, while Winnie Luwali was transferred from Devolution to ICT, to replace Agnetta Karembo, who was transferred from ICT to Livestock. Mung'aro then reassigned Lawrence Bokoro to the Water docket.
