A section of contractors from Meru County who built 40 Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) classrooms are demanding their delayed payment for two years after completing the assigned projects.
Sighting frustrations from the county government, they have called on the national government to intervene. “For some of us, this is the first time we are undertaking a project by the county and it has been two years of no pay,” David Muriithi, a contractor, said. “We have not received any tentative communication about our payments. Some of us have lost property as we wait.”
Speaking to the press Muriithi further disclosed that some of his colleagues have been unable to afford school fees to take their own children to the schools which they built. ”Other children are enjoying the classrooms we built, simply because we have not received payments.”
The contractors now say they are suffering from depression as they struggle to make ends meet. Miriam Gakii called for the government to act. “We didn’t know that we would find ourselves in this situation. We would not have taken up this project if we knew,” she said.
They also added that they took loans to complete the work and that their phones have now gone unanswered. They now hope that the government will intervene so that they get their payments which will help them to pay school fees for their children as well as to pay the loans that they borrowed to complete the work.
