Agriculture executive in hot soup for making disparaging remarks on PWDs

Bungoma County Executive Committee Member (CEC) of Agriculture Chirasha Makanda. [Micah Sali, Standard]

A senior Bungoma County official is on the spot over his remarks about people living with disabilities.

Bungoma County Executive Agriculture executive Chirasha Makanda, while speaking in the Bukusu dialect at Matilda Catholic Church during a funds drive last week, said locals will not accept to be led by a governor who is “limping” or lame.

“How can a limping person want to be governor of Bungoma and would we be fools to elect a lame person,” he said.

Mr Makanda was allegedly referring to businessman Zack Barasa, who was present and who is a vocal critic of the County Government of Bungoma under the leadership of Governor Wycliffe Wangamati.

Mr Barasa is said to be eyeing the gubernatorial seat in 2022 but has not declared it publicly.

The remarks have caused storm in social media platforms, with people living with disabilities (PWDs) led by their county chairman Willis Makokha accusing Makanda of insulting them.

Makokha said Makanda’s remarks were unfortunate. He said the county official should resign or they go to court and push for his removal.

“We have equal rights as people with disabilities, and for someone to make such a statement is not only immoral but also an abuse of office,” he said.

But Makanda has insisted he never uttered the distasteful words. Pointing at a handwritten and signed resignation letter, he said he was ready to hand over the letter to Wangamati and vacate office if anybody has concrete evidence that he uttered the words.

“I only asked Barasa to stop his criticism and give the government time to implement its pledges. There is nothing he is doing apart from raising political temperatures for no reason,” he said.