By Musoma JM
Makueni residents are a bitter lot over a deliberately protracted and sustained wastage of public funds by their Ward Reps in Five Star Hotel retreats.
The vice was exposed by a section of Nominated MCAs who were locked out of a key meeting on 2019/20 budgetary estimates at Panari Hotel,Nairobi over the weekend as two factions of the Assembly tread accusations on each other.
Conflict of interest in management of public has left the County Assembly sharply divided as the Nominated legislators troll their Speaker on social media for sidelining them and being used by corrupt individuals in Governor Kibwana’s office to settle scores over their stance on graft.
They fault their elected counterparts and Speaker Douglas Mbilu for dragging the County into unmerited loss by holding costly meetings outside their jurisdiction to mince more cash from public coffers on obligations that can be executed at no cost from their traditional chambers.
Questions continue to arise on their expenditures as the house leadership finds it hard to justify some of their hefty entitlements. One wonders why provisions of a policy document allegedly originating from powers & privilege committee are so biased and contrary the constitutional principle of equity & equality on administrative affairs.
According to a leaked memo whose details were published by the Makueni I Want Lobby group in February the elected MCAs draw a sitting allowances of Sh.50,000 per session for meetings held outside the County up from the alleged Sh.5,000 they get for meetings within our bounders.
The bone of contention is bound on accruals as all nominated MCA aren’t entitled to any sitting allowances for meetings held outside Makueni.
Funny enough they are technically locked out of such meetings or end up not being notified by the elected counterparts on such. At times they are roughed up and violently evicted by their colleagues who consider them intruders as was the case in Mombasa a few months ago.
The level of impunity meted on this nominated MCAs mainly women,youth and people living with disability is so dire that whoever dares to question is removed from leadership of house committees without rationale.
The status quo remains in the house where the nays may never have it and their fate lies on courts unless our bicameral Parliament intervenes. It is wanting that a person who missed death by whisk after a stray bullet scratched his skull for purportedly defending the wastage of public funds four years ago is the architecture of the scam.
Is it not expected of leaders to embrace the attitude of gratitude in service to the people who have given them jobs? We can’t afford to go the Kiambu way!!!
This comes shortly after the Senate protested the penaltive slashing of funds allocated to Counties by MPs. I ask the Office of Makueni Senator to rise to the occasion and summon the Assembly.
Thank you
Musoma JM.
(The Man of Chronicles)
©TheWayToGo
Disclaimer: The opinion expressed on this article is not necessarily of the management of the county diary, but of the contributor.
