80 employees from Nakuru County’s ministry of environment held demonstrations on Tuesday, January 3, after they were allegedly fired without notice.
The workers from Naivasha claimed that they were shocked to find other employees in their previous positions on Sunday, January 1, after coming back from the December holiday.
“We came to work early in the morning only to find other people performing our roles. We were then later told that we had been fired. We were not given any reason for the terminations,” one of the workers stated.
The workers added some of them did not get any notice of termination while the rest were dismissed through phone messages.
“We needed to be informed what we had done wrong and given notice before being fired. Even when firing your house help you would let her know her mistakes and give her some fare to get home,” one of the workers stated.
The charged workers added that the county owed them as they had salary arrears that had not yet been cleared.
“Some of us have children who need to go to school yet we have not received salaries for the month of December,” another Worker added.
The protesting workers demanded to know the processes that led to their sacking since they were not aware of who gave the directive.
“We do not know if it was the governor that made that decision or the MCAs. We need to know what happened and why,” the protestors added.
The workers stated that they were troubled because they did not know how they would start the year jobless, at a time when the country's economy is struggling.
They appealed to Governor Susan Kihika to help resolve the issue and give them back their jobs for survival.
The strike came a week after the swearing-in of new County Executive Committee Members (CECMs) to the Cabinet on Thursday, December 15, 2022.
Those in Governor Kihika's cabinet include Nelson Tanui in charge of Water and Environment, Jackline Osoro in charge of Health, Stephen Muiruri in charge of Trade, Culture, and Tourism, John Karanja in charge of Land and Physical Planning and Leonard Kipkoech in charge of Agriculture.
