Mombasa county 'unable' to pay its workers

The main street within the Old Town leading to the Old Port in Mombasa. Mombasa County has been unable to pay its workers salary arrears amounting to Sh300 million due to financial constraints, an official has said. File 

By MATHIAS RINGA,

Mombasa County has been unable to pay its workers salary arrears amounting to Sh300 million due to financial constraints, an official has said.

Finance executive Walid Khalid confirmed that the 2,600 county workers have not been paid their wages for the last two months.

He noted that the county was in a financial crisis due to a Sh3 billion debt it inherited from the defunct Mombasa Municipal Council.

The council, he said, used to borrow loans from banks which charged higher interest rates so as to pay workers’ salaries.

This, he added, had left the county in a financial setback as the banks were now demanding more than Sh100 million plus interests.

“It is true that the workers have not received pay for the last two months as the county is facing an economic crunch,” he said.

“The financial woes are so serious that even the county bosses are yet to receive their salaries and allowances,” he explained.

On the other hand, he said, the county landed into financial trouble last month when its three operating bank accounts were frozen by the Kenya Revenue Authority over unpaid tax.

He noted that KRA was demanding unpaid tax amounting to Sh471 million which the county inherited from the council.

However, he said, the accounts’ freeze was lifted recently after the county paid Sh25 million to KRA.

“Our accounts are now operational after we paid Sh25 million to KRA,” he said.

“We agreed to clear the Sh471 million in bits because we are undergoing hard times at the moment,” he explained.

However, he said despite the odds the county would pay its workers their salary arrears in bits beginning this Friday.

In order to address the financial challenges, he added that the county had improved its revenue collection from Sh2 million to Sh5 million.

Mr Khalid said the county had automated its revenue collection in efforts to seal corruption loopholes perpetrated by some dishonest workers.