Less than 100 days in office, senators are out to stamp authority over the governors by holding them accountable and in check.
On Monday, November 7, Senators issued governors - implicated in a Ksh35 billion looting scheme - 14 days to submit written responses on the ghost workers benefitting from the money.
County governors asked to address the issues include Abdullswamad Sharif Nassir (Mombasa), Johnson Sakaja (Nairobi) and Amos Nyaribo (Nyamira). The payments date back to their predecessors.
Reports released by the Auditor General, Nancy Gathungu, indicated that taxpayers could be losing as much as half a billion shillings every month to non-existent staff, despite continuous promises by county bosses to clean up their payrolls.
The Ksh35 billion, the reports disclosed, were paid to ghost staffers since the advent of devolution in 2013, following the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution.
As of 2014, over 12,000 ghost workers were exposed and removed from the payroll, but the number has since soared.
Vihiga county reportedly paid Ksh130.7 million in salaries to 426 ghost workers, each taking home an average of Ksh43,750 monthly.
Mombasa allegedly paid Ksh3 billion in salaries to 1,000 ghost workers under the leadership of former governor Ali Hassan Joho.
In Nyamira county, the late Governor John Nyagarama, allegedly spent Ksh13.9 billion to pay 736 ghost workers.
Machakos governor, Wavinya Ndeti, recently identified at least 37 ghost workers when she took over the county leadership from Alfred Mutua, who served for two terms.
In Kisii county, Governor Simba Arati exposed 861 ghost workers that gobbled taxpayers millions for years.
Arati claimed that the administration had ghost workers employed in various positions, including transport. He argued that he was shocked to learn that the county had 256 drivers against a paltry 82 vehicles.
Once summoned, the governors will face the Senate Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Homa Bay senator, Moses Kajwang.
Kajwang Twitter
The Homa Bay lawmaker will lead the nine-member committee whose mandate will be to exercise oversight of the national revenue allocated to county governments in accordance with Article 96 (3) of the Constitution.
Supreme Court, in October 2022, granted senators powers to summon governors to report on the county's revenue streams, including the taxes collected and any other funds received through donations.
