Support staff members at St Mary’s School for the Deaf located in the Nyangoma area in Bondo Sub-County have downed their tools over unpaid salaries with arrears dating back to March of 2021 rising up to Kshs. 3.4 Million.
The employees demonstrated over the unpaid salaries and paralyzed learning at the institution saying that they will not go back to work until they have received full payment of over 14-month salary arrears.
Among the support staff are security personnel, cooks, groundsmen and matrons who said that the school’s management has never been straight with them on when they shall be paid their dues.
Their leader, George Orawo, said that they have not been able to meet their financial obligations for months and that their families had moiled and toiled to make ends meet up to that point and that they now could not bear it anymore.
The Headteacher of the school Mr Joseph Omonyin revealed that indeed there were salary arrears owed to the members of the staff adding that he is just nine months old in the school having inherited his predecessors’ arrears.
Omonyin also revealed that they depend on government funding and parents’ fees payments. Unfortunately, the funds from the government had not reached the school and fees payment from parents were still below the expectations of the school’s administration.
“The parents in this school have fee arrears totalling Kshs. 2 million. The ministry has not sent any money to the school this term and this makes it hard for us to run the school and pay the workers,” said Omonyin.
He did disagree with workers that they have not been paid for 14 months saying that the school’s Board of Management (BoM) had passed that the workers would not be paid once the school was closed countrywide due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There are arrears but not for 14 months. According to the BOM, workers would not be paid salaries for the months that schools were closed countywide as a result of COVID-19.
However, he implored the workers to be patient and urged them to return to work while the Board finds a way of paying them.