Turkana county government casual workers have gone without pay for the last five months.
The casuals who mainly offer cleaning and guarding services have not received their wages since July.
However, while delivering the state of the county address on Tuesday, Governor Josphat Nanok said he had established a taskforce to resolve the dispute.
“The task force assessment revealed that there were 799 casuals most of whom were irregularly engaged,” Nanok told the county assembly.
“Following the recommendations by the taskforce, the executive resolved that all the casuals who met the basic recruitment criteria would be retained for a maximum of six months with effect from July 1, 2019,” he added
Meanwhile, Nanok said five people have so far died and 6413 shoats, 63 camels and 67 herds of cattle lost to the floods. He added that over 98 traders lost businesses and nearly 3,700 acres of irrigated land was destroyed.
A total of 1,426 households were confirmed affected. A joint committee comprising of county and national governments and development partners estimated the cost of damages so far caused in the county at Sh1.2 billion.
“The county government and partners involved in the flash floods emergency response immediately raised Sh420, 847,250 and Sh16, 760,000 respectively towards mitigation measures,” said Nanok.
By Peter Gitonga
