Mt. Elgon is not short changed in employment

The chairman Public Service Board Bungoma county Gideon Sirai has lashed out people from Mt. Elgon who are blaming the county government of Bungoma for shortchanging them in terms of employment opportunities.

Speaking in his office Sirai said, it’s not fair for them to blame the government of Ken Lusaka adding that it has given equal job opportunities to people from all the nine sub counties in the whole county.

He also gave an example of the employment of EDC teachers whereby Mt. Elgon constituency was given a higher number of 224 compared to other constituencies.

The chairman said top positions in county government are headed by people from Mt. Elgon, adding that Mt. Elgon has two chief officers both Cheptais and Kapsokwony have been represented.

“It’s unfortunate for our people to blame the county government for short listing them yet so many people from Mt. Elgon are working in the county government ,added Sirai

Sirai blamed the people of Mt. Elgon for refusing to work in their constituency, giving an example of health sector where by over 40 qualified health officers obliged to work even after been given job opportunities, saying bad politics has been contributing to that.

“Our people don’t want to work home because of the bad politics, that’s why most of our people prefer to work outside Mt. Elgon, something that is very bad”, added Sirai.

Mr. Sirai said he is working very closely with other top officials from the county government to ensure Mt. Elgon gets the best services, and urged the residents to stop complaining all the time.

He said governor Lusaka has done so developments in Mt. Elgon, adding that residents are enjoying piped water, electricity, roads, and health facilities.

“Since governor Lusaka took office, there is a lot of difference in Mt. Elgon, our roads have been worked on, most people now have piped water, and honestly what else do our people want?” Paused Sirai.

He has urged all the leaders and the people of Mt. Elgon to unite and work together for the betterment of the mountain, saying there will be no development if the leaders are against each other when it comes to development.

“If our leaders would have joined hands and work together as a team, then we could be very far development wise and bad politics is the result of our downfall”, added the chairman.

He said Mt. Elgon is a very rich region because of the natural resources it has but the residents have to be sensitized on how to make good use of them for development, urging the people to work hard.

About education, he said more girls schools should be built in the region to avoid school girls dropping out of school due to pregnancy.

He said most of schools in the region are mixed and day schools, and urged the member of parliament through constituency development fund to built girls boarding schools to avoid incidents like of Chelebei secondary school where by more than twenty girls were impregnated.

Sirai said availability of a dormitory will help confine girls in one place as they will not be moving around by walking long distances to and from school daily, and are waylaid by men from from the area.

He also said poverty is another major setback in such cases, because the girls are lured by money by boda boda guys hence contributing such incidents.

“Our girls are lured with little money or are given lift to and from school by the boda boda operators and the girls pay them back for the services by sleeping with them, but if the girls are in boarding schools such incidents are rare,” said Sirai