My attention has been drawn to yet another smouldering fiasco wrongly attributed to the County Government of Siaya. There are claims appearing on certain social media platforms that the County Government of Siaya pays casual labourers on contract below the official threshold stipulated by the Regulation of Wages as amended in 2024.
A casual survey and interrogation of the victims of the claims indicate that sweepers in Siaya earn an average of KES 13,000 which is way above the recommended KES 9,000.
According to the County Public Service Board the reason for this is that the schedule recommends hourly wages for casuals and sweepers rarely work in excess of four hours.
Could this willful misrepresentation of fact be anchored on something else other than informing the public of apparent mismanagement? Take for example a recent image of a rundown structure widely circulated on social media purporting to have been taken from Siaya CBD. The photo was accompanied by a hashtag demeaning the governorship of Orengo.
For someone who knows how costly it is to sponsor these X hashtags it took very little effort to unearth the culprit. The State was hitting back at the Siaya Governor over his stance in questioning the rationale of ODM leadership amalgamating with UDA without any signed documentation. Orengo was attacked by all and sundry but shortly afterwards his wisdom prevailed and we all know the Principals quickly signed some form of a pact.
Back home, the Governor has been the bane of attacks sponsored by individuals ganging up to succeed him in the 2027 race. That is politics and there’s nothing unique about that.
However, it’s the height of ignominy to see youth who are residents of Siaya being used by disgruntled politicians to tarnish the image of the county whose future is their legacy merely because of stipends and handouts.
Siaya County may appear at the bottom of a list issued by the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC), or DCI or the Auditor General and within hours Siaya is trending. Even keyboard warriors from the rest of Kenya have learnt that if you want to divert attention from issues of the magnitude of a national crisis just place the blame on Siaya and the dice rolls nicely.
The County of Siaya has a peculiarity that will soon catch up with the rest of Kenya: a majority of unemployed youth are university graduates. Grappling with idleness and frustration these digital-savvy youth are ventilating on social media. It doesn’t matter to them that prudent practices in the use of social media might impact their future careers – they are, indeed, a frustrated lot, and frustrated people are foolhardy.
Recently a court fined a jobless young Siaya man who went overboard KES 20 million for defamation. Obviously the young man who probably spewed venom from the sanctity of an Mkopa-loaned phone has no idea what is twenty million in Kenya currency.
The disparity in youth unemployment in Siaya county, therefore, is not an issue that can be resolved by Orengo alone, the national government has to do its bit.
Monday 7th April, 2025
Editorial
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