Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino has dismissed widespread reports alleging that he called for the dismissal of 3,800 Nairobi County employees. Instead, he clarified that he supports better wages for the workers and even proposed that their salaries be doubled.
The misleading claims circulating online suggested that Babu Owino had demanded the sacking of the 3,800 Green Army staff members employed by the Nairobi City County Government.
These workers play a crucial role in environmental management, keeping Nairobi clean by handling garbage collection and maintaining public spaces under the Green Nairobi Department.
A viral post, which originated from an account closely resembling Babu Owino’s official X (formerly Twitter) profile, falsely attributed a statement to him.
The post read, “Sack all the 3,800 staff in the name of the Green Army; they are ghost workers. We can’t be paying ghost workers with taxpayer money.”
However, Babu Owino took to his real social media account to set the record straight. He strongly refuted the claims and instead expressed his full support for the Green Army workers. “The Green Army should be respected and paid double the money they are getting currently. They work so hard, yet they are paid next to nothing,” he stated.
These allegations come at a time when Nairobi County is under scrutiny following a recent Auditor-General’s report, which uncovered financial irregularities.
The report raised concerns over the hiring of 3,834 staff members without proper job advertisements or transparent recruitment procedures in the 2023/2024 financial year.
Additionally, the audit revealed inconsistencies in salary payments, with some employees’ basic salaries changing multiple times within a year. It also highlighted cases where unqualified personnel were occupying critical positions.
Further investigations into Nairobi County’s finances uncovered that the Nairobi County Assembly could not account for over Ksh905 million.
The missing funds included unsupported salary advances, unverifiable travel expenses, and misclassified expenditures. Moreover, the assembly failed to remit statutory deductions totaling Ksh67 million.
Despite these findings, the Auditor-General’s report did not address concerns regarding the legitimacy of the 3,834 hires, the transparency of their recruitment, or the inconsistencies in salary payments and job appointments.
As the 2027 elections approach, such revelations are adding to the ongoing debate about governance and accountability in Nairobi County.
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