Murang’a’s senator has asked two Kenyan Senate committees for answers about health-worker employment and what he said were residents’ concerns about a local asphalt plant. Joe Nyutu raised the separate requests on 3 November, seeking information on staff pay and the handling of environmental concerns.
The health request concerns workers employed under Kenya’s Universal Health Coverage programme. The senator said some in his county were still waiting to be placed on permanent and pensionable terms and had experienced delays in receiving salaries. He asked the committee to establish what had happened.
Nyutu requested the numbers of eligible staff who had received permanent and pensionable appointments and those still waiting. He also asked about the reasons for delays in issuing appointment letters and completing the transition.
On pay, he sought details of money released for the transition, when it was disbursed and which government bodies received it. He also asked about possible delays in salaries and allowances and the status of any outstanding arrears.
A further question concerns the transfer of staff to Murang’a County’s payroll. The senator wants to know how many workers have been moved successfully and whether administrative, financial or technical difficulties have affected the process.
Kenya’s transition
The questions follow a decision on 31 August by the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council, a body bringing together national and county leaders. It provided for eligible workers to move to permanent and pensionable terms with effect from 1 July 2026.
Under the arrangement, the transition was to be financed through additional county allocations for the 2026/27 financial year. Payrolls were to be transferred to county governments, with county public service boards handling the workers’ formal absorption. The Public Service Commission was expected to issue common guidelines for the process.
The health ministry has described the transition as covering about 7,800 workers nationally. It said the government had allocated 8.6 billion Kenyan shillings for the change, including statutory employer contributions. Those national figures do not establish how many workers in Murang’a are affected by delays.
The payroll question has been contested. The health ministry said the transfer to county payrolls had encountered challenges. Before the August agreement, the health secretary said the Council of Governors had declined to integrate the workers into county systems while seeking a different funding mechanism. He said the ministry had then reversed the transfer and temporarily retained the workers on its payroll.
At the August meeting, the health secretary said the ministry had paid workers for July and August but could not sustain the arrangement without a revised funding mechanism. The August agreement provided for the ministry to be reimbursed for those payments and envisaged counties taking over payroll responsibility from September.
The council also resolved that the costs of absorbing the workers should be considered in revenue-sharing recommendations for 2027/28. The intention was to prevent counties losing part of their equitable share because their wage bills had increased. That was a funding provision for a later financial year, not confirmation that individual appointments had been completed.
Nyutu urged the national government and the county administration to speed up the transition, settle any outstanding payments and provide clear timelines. His request seeks a county-level account of how the national commitment has been applied; it does not itself provide the figures he has asked the committee to obtain.
Separate environmental request
In a separate request to the Senate committee responsible for land, environment and natural resources, the senator said residents had raised concerns about possible emissions from an asphalt processing plant in the county. He asked for the concerns to be examined.
He sought information on whether the facility had the necessary environmental licences and approvals, and whether its operations complied with environmental and air-quality rules. He also asked for the findings of any inspections, audits and air-quality assessments, and for details of action taken in response to any complaints from residents.
The request for a statement is not a regulatory finding. It does not establish that the plant has breached a rule, that its emissions have been independently measured or that residents have suffered a particular harm. The health and environmental questions were submitted to different committees and concern separate issues.
