By Amoto Ndiewo
Non-teaching staff at Garissa Teachers College held a peaceful demonstration over unpaid dues currently standing at nine months.
The 52 labourers including cooks, watchmen, carpenters and gardeners said their many efforts to seek audience with the college had borne no fruit.
Speaking to the press, Mohamed Aden, a non-teaching staff member called on local leaders led by Aden Duale to intervene and help resolve the impasse.
“The situation has really taken a toll on us, nine months without pay is like working for a year for free,” said Mohamed Aden.
Mohamed Abdi, another member said that some of them had already retired and gone home without gratuity.
“We have tried to seek audience with the school principal but he keeps shifting the blame saying that the problem lies with the national government which hasn’t disbursed the funds,” said Mohamed Abdi.
The Principal Peter Mogoshi admitted that the non-teaching staff were yet to be paid since January.
However, he absolved himself of any blame noting that the national government had not availed the funds for two financial years.
“There is a grant which the government is supposed to give us every quarter and we depend on it to pay salaries for non-teaching staff,” he said.
He added: “The government has also slashed the grant based on the number of students we have. We used to get Ksh. 4.5 million but currently we get Sh2.2million which only covers one month. Our huge wage bill stands at Ksh.1.3 million per month which is also not making things any better.”
He further disclosed that the college was currently servicing a loan of Ksh. 20 million which was used to build staff houses.
“The government should give us a grant based on the number of staff and not the number of students to enable us find a solution for the salary delays,” he added.
He blames the delays in payment of salaries to excess number of non-teaching staff at the college. He said the college has 54 subordinates against the expected 23.
“I have tried reducing the number but have been met with stiff resistance because of political allegiance,” he said.
