Senate grills Baringo governor over ghost equipment and 730 casual health workers
By Ndiritu Wanjiru, March 6, 2026The Senate of Kenya has put Benjamin Cheboi, Governor of Baringo County, under scrutiny on account of alleged anomalies in the health sector of the county, such as ghost equipment and the use of hundreds of casual employees by the public hospitals.
Taking it to their social media handle on Friday, March 6, 2024, the parliament has noted that on Thursday, March 5, 2026, the governor was in front of the Senate County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee in the Bunge Tower, where she was responding to issues brought up in the 2024/2025 report by Nancy Gathungu, the auditor general. The report raised several shortcomings in the health facilities of Baringo, especially in terms of equipment and personnel, as well as the employment of 730 ghost workers.
According to Godfrey Osotsi, who led the committee, the panel interrogated the county leadership on discrepancies between the official classification of hospitals and the actual provision of medical equipment.
“Governor, the Auditor General has visited these hospitals, physically verified what is there and what is not there, and put it in writing. We are not dealing with opinions here; we are dealing with facts on the ground. The people of Baringo were told these are Level 4 and Level 5 hospitals. Our question today is very simple: what exactly does that mean for a patient who walks through those doors? “Osotsi noted.
The results of the audit also revealed that not all of the facilities assigned to the higher-level hospital had the necessary equipment that should be expected. According to the senators in the session, the case of Baringo County Referral Hospital, which is a Level 5 facility but allegedly lacks critical care equipment, was mentioned during the session.
The legislators claimed that the type of hospital should be balanced with the equipment and services to provide appropriate care.
Governor Cheboi admitted that a part of the equipment is still unavailable in some of the facilities but responded that the county government is trying to manage its assets better and make sure that the medical equipment is recorded and accounted for.
Another issue that was raised by the committee was that of what it called the ‘ghost equipment’, whereby things on the official records could not be confirmed on the ground during the audit inspection. Such discrepancies prompted senators to question the procurement, inventory and accountability in the county health department.
The other significant concern that the committee expressed was that 730 casual workers have been employed in Baringo, which has public health facilities. The audit revealed that there was a large proportion of health workers, both nurses and other technical employees, who worked under short-term contracts.
In the referral hospital alone, 222 casual and contracted employees had been reported to be on the payroll. They included 41 nurses who had served renewable, three-month contracts over long durations, some of them being three years. The practice was condemned by senators who expressed causes of concern on the issue of the potential existence of ghost workers and the legality of having technical staff on temporary contracts incurring long-term arrangements. They claimed that these arrangements would compromise accountability in payroll management and would put the employees at risk of job insecurity.
Cheboi’s response on ghost workers
To this, Governor Cheboi confirmed that the practice of contracting health workers on short-term contracts was rife but cited that the county has been banking on the practice to ensure that health services continue to operate within the constraints of its finances.
“The wage bill is a heavy chain around our neck. While we admit that the engagement of technical staff on renewable three-month contracts is widespread, we have used facility improvement funds to keep these hospitals running. We are now working on a plan to regularise these staff through the Public Service Board, but we must balance this against our fiscal envelope,” Cheboi said.
He informed the committee that the county government was preparing a plan under the County Public Service Board to analyse and harmonise long-time employees and enhance the need for managing equipment acquisition and inventory procedures.
The Senate committee stated that it would keep looking into the issue and might even make additional checks to determine the condition of the equipment and workers found in the report prepared by the auditor general.