Kisumu residents shift blame to Edward Ouko over Sh3.8b mall delay

The Lake Basin Mall in Kisumu

KISUMU, KENYA: Kisumu residents now want Auditor General Edward Ouko grilled over the delayed opening of the Sh3.8 billion controversial Lake Basin Mall.

Occupation and operationalisation of the mall is yet to kick off more than a year after Ouko gave the works a clean bill of health.

The official launch of the mall has been clouded by investigations into alleged misuse of funds channelled towards its construction at a cost quoted to be between Sh3.8 billion and Sh4.1 billion.

The residents who matched along the streets of Kisumu also want Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri (formerly Devolution CS) and Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo tasked to shed light on the delays despite their ministries clearing payments for the monies owed to the contractors who worked on the mall.

A consortium of civil society groups, residents and small traders eyeing opportunities in doing business with the expansive mall want the officials, who gave its construction a clean bill of health, roped into an active investigation of former and current officials of the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA), owners of the mall.

According to them, questioning of the top Government officials would be the only way to prove that efforts by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission are not politically-motivated ploy to derail the project whose construction through loans will be footed by the taxpayer.

They termed the delayed opening of the mall economic sabotage.

At the heart of the stalemate is alleged inflation of the cost of the project from Sh2.5 billion to Sh4.1 billion.

“We are aware of the advice from the office of the auditor general to the Devolution CS and the controller of budget to pay the contractor on a clean bill of health. If there were issues then they ought not to have paid. We, therefore, read politics and sinister motives in this (investigations),” they said in a statement signed by Erick Okello and Edgar Odoyo, their mouthpiece.

They said the probe and ‘harassment of officials’ was causing discontent among potential investigators including the anchor tenant that is yet to be officially unveiled.