Operations at Nina school for the deaf in Alego/Usonga sub-county, Siaya county have been paralysed following an employee go-slow.
The school's staff has downed tools because of unpaid salaries over a period of four months.
Richard Omondi, one of the striking employees, stated that the staff would not resume work until their dues are paid.
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“We are on a go slow and we don’t mind even if it goes beyond a month because we have been frustrated enough. The school administration has declined to pay our salaries or remit statutory deductions and this has now put us in a very awkward position,” Omondi said.
The staff stated that they cannot understand the argument that the government has only been sending funds for school operations without including the workers’ salaries and statutory deductions.
"How can government send operation funds and fail to forward to the institution our salaries?" Omondi wondered.
“We are currently suffering to an extent that we cannot feed or pay school fees for our children. We plead with the government to intervene so that our salaries can be paid in full,” he added.
No salary since July
When contacted for comment, the school’s head teacher Tom Mboya admitted that the workers had not been paid since July this year.
However, he attributed the problem to the government’s poor funds disbursement trend together with accumulated school fees arrears which stand at over Ksh1 million.
"We last paid salaries in June. It’s the government that has been facilitating us to run the affairs of the institution through capitation and we have not yet received funds,” Mboya said.
“I have tried to appeal to the staff to exercise patience as the school works on ways of settling their salary arrears of at least two months, but they have refused and insisted that they want their full pay for the last four months,” he added.
