Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has announced that it will evict Huduma centres over rent arrears amounting to Sh. 1.7 billion. The corporation that has been grasping on straws to survive accused the Ministry of Public Service of deliberately failing to pay rent in nearly half of all Huduma Centres across the country that are hosted by it.
These Huduma Centres include Nairobi (GPO), Kakamega, Nakuru, Meru, Mombasa, Machakos, Kisii, Bungoma, Marsabit and Isiolo.
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“Posta is demanding Sh. 1.7 billion in rent arrears that have accumulated for hosting the Huduma Centres. Some of the Huduma Centres are now being evicted and government data risks being compromised,” said Mary Kimonye, the Public Service Principal Secretary. She spoke while addressing the Administration and Security committee during the scrutiny of the 2022/23 budget policy statement (BPS). “PCK is licensing kiosks in their premises around the Huduma Centres hence posing a huge threat of compromising crucial government data.”
She added that the Ministry of Public Service was planning to set up 10 more Huduma Centres in the financial year starting July 1 2022. “Some of the Huduma Centres are very small like Embu and there is a need to acquire a bigger space,” she said.
In December 2021, a protest by Posta employees over salaries in Nakuru paralyzed operations at the Nakuru Huduma Centre for a whole day after the workers switched off power. Over the past few years, Posta has been struggling to meet its financial obligations. In 2021, the State corporation sought Sh. 1 billion from the National Treasury to stay afloat.
In January 2022, the Communication Workers Union (COWU) called for the reduction of general managers at Postal Corporation as one way of saving the parastatal from collapse. The union also called for the corporation’s board to be dissolved saying it had failed in its mandate even as workers lamented non-payment of their salaries since November 2021.
