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The nullification of Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti might humble the abrasive politician known for his broadsides on the podium.
Jamawego aka Akuba is not a stranger to controversy and fires back as much as he gets.
The governor, in mid-2016, was invited to launch a borehole that the county government had reportedly drilled at a cost of Sh11 million.
The occasion attracted a number of villagers who came to witness flowing tap water. He gave a fiery speech about his government working for residents and proceeded to cut a ribbon to officially launch the borehole.
He turned on the tap and water gushed as county workers clapped. It took a drunk man to point out to the governor that the tap was connected to a water bowser that was hidden behind a building.
There was no borehole and millions of taxpayers’ money was sunk in a non-existent borehole. The governor, in his usual abrasive nature, hurled unprintable abuses at his minister for Water before storming out of the venue.
This was one of the very many incidents in Homa Bay County under the leadership of Cyprian Awiti.
Two months to elections, two residents of Homa Bay County filed a case in the High Court seeking to compel the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to institute criminal charges against the governor.
The petitioners, Michael Kojo Otieno and Samora Machel Alosi, claimed massive financial impropriety by Awiti and some county executives.
They claimed that Sh100,000 was allegedly used to transport sports equipment from a sports shop in
Nairobi, yet no such equipment was purchased or transported.
The petitioners further alleged that there were sub-standard, ghost, and fake projects in which the public had lost billions of shillings. They said the projects included water projects, roads, hospitals and sports.
In one incident, cash close to Sh200 million was paid to an ‘investor’ as equity contribution for the proposed Agricity project- which now seems to be but a dream.
