Sakaja under fire as ‘Dishi na County’ staff stage protest over unpaid salaries

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja was on Wednesday thrust to the spotlight as a section of county staff took to the Central Business District (CBD) in protest.

The workers, under the ‘Dishi na County’ school feeding programme, marched across the city while carrying banners and chanting demanding to be paid their rightful dues.

The visibly frustrated county employees could be heard airing their grievances, chanting “Pesa yetu, wamekula,” as they made rounds across the capital.

This comes after Auditor General Nancy Gathungu only recently raised queries over payments made to the school feeding programme’s implementor, Food for Education (F4E).

Gathungu noted a lack of transparency in management of funds at the programme, querying a Ksh.145 million grant from the French Embassy, which was intended to support the Olympic Primary School in Kibera.

"The audit could not ascertain the accountability for these funds. In addition, there were no established measures by the County Executive regarding the management of the donations received, as there were no guidelines in place for handling such donations," read the report.

The Dishi na County programme celebrated its one-year anniversary in January this year, with Governor Sakaja stating then that their eight kitchens had collectively served over eight million meals since inception.