If some of the silly things governors do using public funds are anything to go by, then the much-touted devolution is one big joke. Are Kenyans too stupid for democracy? One is left wondering why they keep electing idiots!
Last week, Bungoma County Governor Ken Lusaka was the butt of all sorts of jokes on social media after it emerged that his county bought ten wheelbarrows at a whopping cost of Sh109,320 each for its slaughterhouse. The governor defended the exorbitant expenditure, arguing that the wheelbarrows were special-- made of stainless, non-carcinogenic material, which reduces cancer risk. Of course Kenyans never bought the argument.
However, this was not the first time Governor Lusaka had made news for the wrong reason. A while back, he grabbed news headlines after he set aside Sh90m to fight pornography in the county.
In yet another perfect example of how mediocre some county leaders are, Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto tickled and shocked Kenyans when he showed off and unveiled what looked like an improvised fire engine. The fire-fighting equipment looked like a third-hand lorry that had been refurbished, fitted with a ladder, tank and a siren and, voila, declared ‘a fire engine’. What sparked fury was the fact that the makeshift gizmo had cost the country a breathtaking Sh21 million.
However, governors Lusaka and Ruto are not alone. They are actually in great company. That is, if what their Kirinyaga counterpart, Joseph Kirunyu Ndathi, is accused of blowing is anything to go by. The good governor allegedly paid a cool Sh2m on to an IT guru to manage the county’s Facebook account.
After the county’s first Facebook account was hacked and used to send ‘dirty’ messages to other social media users, the governor didn’t want to take chances.
He apparently enlisted the services of the tech wizard to help them open a ‘hacker-proof’ account. You just can’t beat that.
The same governor, perhaps out of idleness and desperation for media coverage, launched a tiny footbridge at a rural outpost, complete with fanfare that included cutting of a ceremonial ribbon.
When images of the ceremony surfaced, the governor was turned into a laughing stock, with some Kenyans suggesting that the move was way beneath not just the governor but any self-respecting MCA. Besides wasting public funds at the ceremony, what angered most Kenyans was that upon closer scrutiny, the footbridge was neither newly built nor refurbished. Just a rusty makeshift bridge decorated with flowers.
Elsewhere, in Laikipia County, residents recently got worked up after their county reportedly spent close to Sh2m on a project to buy and train four dogs to boost security. In Embu, we are told the County spent Sh13m to build a gate, allegations that Governor Wambora has come come out to dismiss, claiming the project only cost Sh9m. Same madness has been reported in Nyamira County where a gate leading to Nyamira hospital cost Sh7m.
This could be just the tip of the iceberg of how most counties have inverted priorities. It’s high time Kenyan’s braced themselves for more idiocy because the worst is yet to come.
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