MCAs target six-county executives over misuse of county funds

Nandi Governor Stephen Sang addresses a press conference in Nairobi. [David Njaaga/Standard]

Governor Stephen Sang’s administration is facing audit queries over Sh2 billion spent in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years.

The Nandi County Assembly, which has gone on a two-week recess, will resume sittings on May 7 to debate several House committee reports that might lead to impeachment of six County Executive Committee members (CECs) for alleged misuse of funds.

In a stormy sitting last Thursday, MCAs voted to postpone moving impeachment Motions against three CECs for under-performance and bearing the greatest responsibility for financial misappropriation in their respective departments.

The assembly flagged five departmental heads on a range of issues, including alleged funds misuse, procurement malpractices and poor performance.

Assembly Speaker Joshua Kiptoo told The Standard the Nandi County Assembly had "genuine concerns" on the county’s development agenda and the CECs' ability to deliver on their mandate.

As such, the assembly is preparing to introduce impeachment Motions against CECs Alfred Lagat (Finance), Teresa Morogo (Administration), Hillary Koech (Transport), Valentine Chumo (Education), Stanley Baliach (Lands) and Jacob Tanui (Trade) for their departments' underperformance and poor absorption of development funds.

The Assembly Committee on Education is investigating how more than Sh220 million that was meant for the construction of 120 ECDs was misappropriated in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years.

“There is a visible lack of complete ECD projects on the ground despite missing funds. MCAs discovered massive procurement irregularities,” said MCA Mengeech Rono, the committee chair.

Ms Chumo, the Education CEC, went to court to stop her impeachment and blamed her predecessor for the mess in the department. “I was recently transferred to the Education department and inherited the records,” she said.

Mr Lagat, the Finance CEC, has been accused of ignoring summonses to appear before the assembly to answer to queries of procurement malpractices in several departments, which have led to loss of billions in county funds.

The Roads Department faces tough queries on procurement of fuel for road machinery and misuse of county road machinery.

The administration department faces queries on a bloated wage bill.

CEC Morogo has been sanctioned for allegedly over-employing county employees, resulting in a bloated workforce.

Tanui faces queries on water projects where the assembly reports the county has lost more than Sh300 million in "bogus" water projects.