Anxiety as EACC summons 41 MCAs over imaginary Uganda trip

Siaya County Assembly during a sitting on November 8, 2017. EACC is investigating the county speaker and MCAs over Ugandan trip. [File, Standard]

 

 

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has summoned Siaya County Assembly Speaker George Okode and all Members of County Assembly (MCAs) to record statements over an alleged trip to Uganda.

The commission has been investigating the assembly for allegedly sponsoring a non-existent trip to Uganda where each MCA and support staff who was to go was allocated Sh200,000.

In a letter dated July 31, 2019, and seen by The Standard digital, EACC Western Regional Manager Ignatius Wekesa asked the assembly to facilitate all the 41 MCAs to their offices in Kisumu to record statements.

According to the letter, the Speaker is expected to appear before the commission at 10 am on August 27, 2019.

The letter states that four MCAs will appear before the commission every day as from Monday, August 12, to August 27, 2019.

The MCAs have been asked to carry the original travel documents that they used for the trip.

Two months ago three petitioners wrote to the EACC requesting them to investigate suspicious activities within the assembly. 

The petitioners in their letter had highlighted eight issues that had been brought to their attention by whistleblowers among them the Ugandan trip which they claimed none of the MCAs had gone to.

The petitioners are part of a group known as the Siaya County Accountability Network (SCAN) and were represented in the letter by three people namely; John Ouma, James Wanga and Irene Atieno.

The petitioners also want EACC to investigate the alleged recruitment of over 50 interns who have training in fields that have nothing to do with the administrative and legislative roles of the assembly, yet were put on the payroll.

Some MCAs who sought anonymity for fear of victimisation by their colleagues told The Standard that the EACC had set a desk at the county assembly where they have been probing staff and interns for the past four weeks.