West Pokot County Governor Simon Kachapin has urged civil servants to abide by their code of conduct and serve all people without discrimination while discharging their duties.
Speaking during a 7-hour inspection tour of Kapenguria County Teaching and Referral Hospital on Thursday, Kachapin said wananchi expect good services from civil servants irrespective of which political leadership that is in control.
“It is regrettable that some civil servants bent so low during the electioneering period by becoming chief agents of some political parties. This is the lowest civil servants can go,” regretted the governor.
He warned that his administration will not tolerate any form of corruption promising to deal firmly with those workers who will go against the code of conduct for civil servants.
“We shall ensure that our campaign manifesto is fulfilled since that is what convinced the electorate to entrust us and give me a second chance. Our health facilities ought to be equipped with essential drugs and anyone found stealing them will be dealt with,” he reiterated.
He added that from some preliminary observations, the county is among those experiencing a bloated wage bill arising from unregulated recruitments leading to the presence of ghost workers.
“If our audit reveals that there are such people drawing salaries from the public coffers without rendering any service, we shall not hesitate to surcharge them,” he warned blaming the ongoing regime for massive hiring.
Kachapin pinpointed that when he left office there were around 600 casual workers but the figure has tripled within the past five years.
He promised to deal with any form of unfair promotions noting that some workers whom he left had stagnated for long but those who were recruited later had been granted timely promotions.
He asked the county staff to forget about their political affiliations instead unify their workforce for improved service delivery.
“I will serve every employee equally without victimisation irrespective of your past political stand as long as you do your work professionally. Those who will deviate we shall have no otherwise but reprimand them,” reiterated the governor.
Kachapin exuded confidence that his administration will spur greater developments since he is well versed with the needs of the county because it is his second time in the same office together with the wealth of experience he gained from serving as a Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) in the national government.
He appealed to leaders who take over from others to consider completing projects initiated by their predecessors for continuity in service delivery.
“It is unfortunate that there are some buildings and projects that I initiated but they were abandoned by my successor. This is not the way we leaders should behave because what Kenyans want is development and service delivery irrespective of who implements them,” posed the governor.
Accompanied by his deputy Robert Komole, Kachapin revealed that the inspection exercise will be conducted across all the devolved departments in a move to assess the working status.
By Richard Muhambe and Anthony Melly
