More than 500 Siaya County Government workers have gone without salaries for the last two months due to a lack of personal file numbers, the County Assembly has revealed.
The affected employees who include permanent staff, casual laborers, and the County Public Service Board Chairman have been locked out of the payroll after the Controller of Budget halted manual salary payments outside the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD).
During a heated assembly session chaired by Speaker George Okode, Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) blamed the county executive’s human resource department for gross inefficiency and alleged extortion.
The House heard that rogue officials tasked with generating the personnel numbers have been deliberately tossing desperate workers from office to office in a bid to solicit bribes.
Speaker Okode condemned the department, stating that the systemic failure has exposed low-income workers, such as market sweepers and hospital cleaners, to severe financial distress.
”Their lives have been rendered so difficult. Their doors have been locked because they cannot pay rent, their children have been kicked out of school, and they cannot pay their bills,” Okode said. “We want to take action on officers who have slept on the job.”
The Speaker called for an immediate overhaul of the human resource department to restrict system user rights to responsible officers only.
In a shocking revelation, the Chairman of the Siaya County Public Service Board, Charles Gordon Juma who was among the top officials summoned by the assembly confessed that he is also a victim of the payroll mess.
”Come June 2026, I will be two years without a personal file number,” Juma told the stunned House. He added that the board has narrowed down on three officers suspected of orchestrating the crisis.
East Ugenya MCA Fredrick Omoro termed it “shameful” that senior officers were exposing their colleagues to suffering, while North Sakwa MCA Oliver Arika rejected attempts to blame the national government, insisting the rot was internal.
”The staff is always tossed right, left, and center. If you go to the human resource director, she says she is not authorized to initiate and authorize the process,” Arika noted, calling for urgent interventions.
The Chief Officer for Governance and Administration, Walter Okello, disclosed that the cash-strapped workers are owed over Sh48 million in unpaid salaries for March and April 2026.
Okello, however, assured the assembly that the executive is working to resolve the crisis. He stated that they have already engaged the State Department of Public Service Management to fast-track the generation of the vital numbers.
”Following the engagement, we agreed on a timeline of June 10, 2026, to be able to finish the exercise,” Okello said.
The Assembly issued a strict directive demanding that the executive resolve the payroll hitch before the end of the current financial year on June 30, 2026.
”We know that their monies are in the budget up to June 30, 2026. So whatever you are doing, these people must be paid by the end of this financial year,” Speaker Okode ordered.
