Kisumu County Government has been rocked by constant wrangles. The residents of Kisumu County and the country as a whole have been fooled to believe that the main cause of the wrangles is the superiority battle between Governor Jack Ranguma and the Deputy Governor Ruth Odinga.
This has made the honourable people of Kisumu County to subscribe to the cheap politics of “Jo Siaya”; that is, Ruth Odinga cannot lead and make decisions in Kisumu County because she comes from Siaya County, instead of putting a demand on the County Government to deliver as far as development is concerned.
The wrangling has nothing to do with Ruth being from Siaya or being related to Rt Hon Raila Odinga!
First, when the World Bank released its report on how counties spent their allocations from the national government on development, Kisumu County trailed after spending a dismal 1%. Shockingly, the residents were made to believe that “someone” colluded with the World Bank to embarrass “us” by removing 3 from the “31%” we spent on development. My biggest question remains how Siaya makes us spend 1%.
Secondly, statistics reveal that Kisumu County collected Ksh621.9 million against Ksh987.7 million collected by the defunct Kisumu Municipal council in 2011/12. This represents a difference of Ksh365.8 million. I can’t see the hand of “Jo Siaya” in this lapse, just outright laxity in revenue collection by the government of Mr Jack Ranguma.
Thirdly, when the controller of budget raised a red flag early this year that Kisumu alongside other 26 counties will face financial crisis as a result of budget deficits, Kisumu County executive went ahead and organized the publicly condemned retreat for the 49 county assembly members and 30 other county staff. This retreat sliced not less than Ksh8 million from the county coffers.
This was a clear indication that those with the mandate of leading the county towards economic growth either don’t have a hint about how to spur economic growth or simply don’t have the county at heart. Worse still the retreat was in Nairobi since hotels in Kisumu are “expensive”. Where is our patriotism? Again how does “Jo Siaya” come in?
Lastly, the executive led by Governor Jack has remained silent amidst substantial claims that Ksh808 million meant for the construction of the county assembly has been misappropriated. Sources have it that some MCAs got up to Ksh5 millions of this. I am certain this is not what Governor Peter Munya fights for in the “Pesa Mashinani” campaign and neither what the central government led by H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta give out money to counties for! How again does Siaya come in?
This is “traditional” corruption and insensitivity to the needs of the people.
I want to appeal to the people from our County to shy away from petty politics and focus on development politics. As a good citizen, it is my wish that the presidency will keep true his promise of fighting corruption by directing EACC to investigate Kisumu County and unravel the mystery behind the Ksh808 million projects.
Since management of public funds remains of global interest, we need to make those charged with this responsibility more accountable. The national government has to fine tune its M&E systems so we can close the gaps until we get value for the money we give our counties.
All of us must remain sensitive about human progress; acts that will make our poorest to live decent lives. Corruption and pride won’t and can’t pay. They will never be allies in the struggle of pulling our people from abject poverty.
Onoka, a Masters student at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, is an anti-poverty crusader and currently finalising his thesis work in Pure Mathematics.
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