Forget about the slaps here and there or planting grass a little too late for Obama to see. There is more to county governments that a lot struggle to understand. If in my capacity as a business writer I find it absolutely hard to digest what some of these ‘governors’ do with public taxes, I wonder what my granny in the village would make of all this.
There have been shocking and at times amusing news of governors spending huge sums of money in acquiring basic things like a wheelbarrow or spending millions just to learn how to dispose waste or use a tablet.
Not so long ago, my home county, Migori, took a whole lot of Members of County Assembly, 16 to be precise, to Dubai. The learned folks simply flew over the sky, spent a whole 5.8 shillings to study how to successfully dispose of waste.
The same Migori County government in 2013-14 financial year, according to an audit report, spent a total of Sh8 million on foreign travels to Rwanda, Canada among many other places. In any case, I think they did not learn anything substantial because Migori hasn’t changed a bit.
While tongues wagged over the whole drama in Migori County plus those in Elgeyo Marakwet who travelled to Congo to brainstorm, new business ventures were slowly cropping in. No sooner had I started questioning the economic consciousness of county governments than Bungoma County stole the headlines.
This time round, nobody travelled but wheelbarrows cost more money than a brand new TVS Star motorbike. Surprisingly, the governor, Ken Lusaka, came in defense of the expenditure that saw many Kenyans watch with their mouths agape, how a mere wheelbarrow would cost a whole quarter price of the new Probox van in town.
Ksh.109 000 for one wheelbarrow would not make sense even to Bill Gates or Richard Branson because that wheelbarrow would not do anything extra-ordinary save for being pushed to lift a load. Its fulcrum, effort and load are the same with that of mine, which set me back only Ksh6,300 in Kariobangi South last year.
Still admiring the ‘non-carcinogenic material’ thing of the Kshs1. 09 million worth of ten wheelbarrows and Kirinyaga County buys its presence on social media at around Ks1.2 million, according to governor Joseph Ndathi. In his own words, the contract included social media updates, photography and videography. This is however contrary to what is in the public domain, of merely opening a Facebook account.
The ugly: Now, worse than all but still the same is Nyamira County which recently constructed a hospital gate at a cost of Ksh7.1 million. The gate was described as ‘extra-ordinary, special, attractive and appealing to patients, offering them a cool place to relax while awaiting treatment.’ This doesn’t matter; the whole bone of contention is how on earth a government would construct a gate at that amount of money while the same referral hospital has neither perimeter wall nor a fence.
According to Jack Magara, Nyamira County Director of health, Ks7.1 million was inclusive of VAT and a few renovations. Nonsense!
The latest expenditure by Meru County government buying curtains at Ks7.8 million has soured the uproar. The curtains may have extra-ordinary qualities. Dr William Nurrah, Meru County health CEC, said all the curtains are blue in colour and that they are brand new. According to him, the cost was divided into two: curtain materials at Ksh3,960000 and netting materials at Ksh3,128400.
In business or at least in the eyes of a poor man trying to save a few coins and take a kid to school or just afford a meal, a doctor crying foul for delay in his/her salary, a teacher on strike begging the government to raise pay, this is absolute mismanagement of public funds and lack of focus on what matters to the public.
These governments should put the interest of their people at heart. Applying basic economics would help in making well informed-decisions and help in prioritising on what is crucially important.
Collins Ogutu is a senior reporter at BusinessToday. Email:[email protected]
Leave a comment