By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 31 May 2026 - More than 500 employees of the Siaya County Government have gone for two months without salaries after being locked out of the payroll system due to the absence of personal file numbers, exposing deep administrative failures within the county's human resource department.
The crisis, which has affected permanent employees, casual labourers and even senior county officials, erupted in the County Assembly where outraged Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) accused county administrators of negligence, inefficiency and possible corruption.
The affected workers have been unable to receive their March and April salaries after the Controller of Budget stopped manual salary payments outside the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD), effectively shutting out employees whose records have not been properly processed.
During a tense session chaired by Speaker George Okode, MCAs painted a grim picture of workers pushed to the edge by the payroll mess.
"Their lives have been rendered so difficult," Okode told the House.
"Their doors have been locked because they cannot pay rent, their children have been kicked out of school and they cannot settle their bills. We want action taken against officers who have slept on the job."
The Speaker said the situation had exposed some of the county's lowest-paid workers, including market cleaners and hospital support staff, to severe economic hardship.
MCAs alleged that some officials responsible for generating the personal file numbers were deliberately frustrating workers and moving them from office to office in a scheme designed to solicit bribes.
The allegations have intensified scrutiny of the county's human resource department, with legislators demanding accountability from officers responsible for managing employee records.
In one of the most startling moments of the proceedings, the Chairman of the Siaya County Public Service Board, Charles Gordon Juma, revealed that he too had fallen victim to the same bureaucratic paralysis.
"Come June 2026, I will be two years without a personal file number," Juma told the Assembly, drawing disbelief from members.
Juma disclosed that investigations had narrowed down to three officers suspected of playing a central role in the prolonged crisis.
East Ugenya MCA Fredrick Omoro described the situation as a national embarrassment, questioning how public officers could preside over a system that leaves employees without pay for months.
North Sakwa MCA Oliver Arika dismissed suggestions that the national government was responsible for the delays, insisting that the problem was entirely internal.
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"The staff are being tossed right, left and centre," Arika said. "When they go to one office, they are told somebody else is responsible. Nobody appears willing to take ownership of the process."
The Assembly also heard that the county owes the affected employees more than KSh 48 million ($370,770) in unpaid salaries.
Chief Officer for Governance and Administration Walter Okello acknowledged the severity of the problem but assured members that efforts were underway to resolve it.
According to Okello, the county government has engaged the State Department for Public Service Management to expedite the generation of the missing personal file numbers.
"Following the engagement, we agreed on a timeline of 10 June 2026 to complete the exercise," he said.
The revelations have exposed the extent to which administrative failures can cripple public service delivery and devastate workers who depend on monthly salaries to support their families.
As pressure mounted, Speaker Okode issued a firm ultimatum to the county executive, demanding that all outstanding salary arrears be cleared before the close of the current financial year on 30 June 2026.
"We know the money is provided for in the budget up to 30 June 2026," Okode said.
"Whatever you are doing, these workers must be paid before the end of this financial year.
For hundreds of affected employees, the Assembly's intervention offers a glimmer of hope.
But it also raises troubling questions about governance, accountability and the management of human resources in a county administration now facing growing pressure to explain how such a crisis was allowed to persist for months—and in some cases, years.
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