Bungoma County disowns beauty queen over gaffe, labels her an impostor

A beauty queen from Bungoma was yesterday disowned by the county after she made remarks that seemed to disparage it.

This happened during the Miss Tourism finals in Vihiga County.

The 42 contestants were required to say their names and give a short description of the counties they represented, amid live streaming on KTN.

When her turn came, Catherine Sabina said: "Hello viewers. I am Catherine Sabina from Bungoma, the land of wheelbarrows and James Bond... I am kidding. Bungoma County is a bedrock of tourism, karibu Bungoma."

It is these remarks that saw Bungoma Tourism and Environment executive Martin Talian write to the coordinator, Miss Tourism Kenya, Rosemary Kawira, disowning Sabina, who he also described as an impostor.

The remarks that rubbed the county the wrong way alluded to two incidents that put the devolved unit in the headlines. The first was the purchase of 10 wheelbarrows at a cost of Sh1.09 million, meaning each wheelbarrow cost Sh109,320, an unrealistic price that still baffles the country to date. That was in September last year.

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On May 13, this year, the county was in the new once again when one Saleh Wanjala was seen hanging dangerously on a helicopter that was carrying the body of businessman Jacob Juma as it took off from Post Grounds. Wanjala has since been charged with endangering his life and that of the pilot.

And yesterday, stung by Sabina's remarks, the county wrote to the Miss Tourism Kenya organisers disowning her.

"It has come to our notice that there is a candidate by the name Cate purporting to represent Bungoma County in Miss Tourism 2016. We did not hold any competitions for the Miss Tourism 2016 in Bungoma. Any candidate purporting to be representing Bungoma is an impostor. The county government of Bungoma shall not be liable in any way since it is not participating in Miss Tourism 2016," Mr Talian said in his letter.

However, the contestant countered the letter maintaining she represented Bungoma. "How did I get here if my county was not aware?" posed the university student.

Her patron, Bungoma First Lady Margaret Makelo, said Catherine had committed an unfortunate mistake.

"We were initially not going to have the Miss Tourism thing 2016 until the organisers made it mandatory to have representation from across the 47 counties. Catherine took advantage of this and went to Nairobi for auditions and was enlisted to represent Bungoma," said Makelo.

Makelo said she had never seen her and she only found out about her after organisers called to tell her she (Catherine) was representing Bungoma.

"I spoke to her on phone and she sounded sensible and knowledgeable about our county. I had arrangements to meet her as well as her parents. She nonetheless disappointed on TV when she brought jokes into a serious event," she said.

"People will remember the bad rather than the good in her introduction," said Dr Makelo, who had already voted for Catherine through SMS.