National and County staff clash over houses in Embu

Embu governor Cecily Mbarire in a procession after her inaugural address to the county Assembly of Embu. [Muriithi Mugo, Standard]

The Embu Assembly has sought to prepare an inventory of all houses belonging to the county government.

This comes after an incident where an Embu County employee was evicted from a house for failing to pay sh200,000 to the management of government houses.

Kiambere MCA Lenny Masters, in an interview confirmed that the eviction had been carried out by a gang sent by the government house management team to evict the county staff.

"It is very unfortunate the staff had to relocate. This informed my motion to ensure we exposed corruption cartels who collect money but do not remit the same," Masters noted.

In the motion at the assembly, the MCAs noted that Embu County Government continues to suffer massive revenue losses for failure to document publicly owned residential flats, estates, market stalls and shops.

The startling revelations also indicated that the buildings had either been illegally sold off or grabbed, leaving the county without an inventory of tenants and a trace of the premises they occupy.

Ward Representatives who contributed to the motion moved on Masters' behalf by Nominated MCA Jennifer Njimiah expressed concern that occupants of County houses had not been paying rent for the last 15 years due to lack of records about their existence.

"The County has no rent register to inform legislators during the budget making process on how much revenue is projected from government houses,"said Runyenjes Central MCA Edwin Kamuti.

Deputy Speaker Ibrahim Swaleh opined that the bulk of the houses, which are situated in his Kirimari Ward sat on prime plots.

"The County should evict the illegal tenants, construct modern flats and sell off to prospective buyers instead of running at losses,"he stated.

Nominated MCA Agnes Gakungugu alleged, certain individuals at the defunct Local Authorities had sold public houses.

The Assembly has now directed the County Executive to provide information on all public estates and market stalls, names of tenants, location ownership documents and rent collected for the last two years within the next 30 days.

Ruguru-Ngandori MCA Muturi Mwombo, who is the vice chairman of the Lands, and Housing Sectoral Committee pledged to expedite the matter and report back to the house within the stipulated timelines.