Advertise

Advertise

MCAs demand answers over Bungoma jerricans

Bungoma MCAs at the county assembly.
Some Bungoma MCAs have vowed to investigate the 'jerrican scandal' come what may. 
They made the decision after riot police chased them away from the county assembly precincts where they planned to "carry out investigations".
The county administration has been accused of buying 600 twenty-litre jerricans at Sh10,000 each in the war against Covid-19.
Governor Wycliffe Wangamati has dismissed the claims, maintaining that the containers were donated. 
But the MCAs, among them Health committee chairman George Makari, sought to look into the claims.
Police officers barred them from accessing the assembly, leading to an altercation. The MCAs were overpowered and decided to address the reporters outside the assembly’s main gate.
"We had summoned nine witnesses, including Health CEC Antony Walela, his chief officer Patrick Wandili and Bungoma County Referral Hospital medical superintendent David Kunikina," Makari said.
The Musikoma MCA said they will ensure the allegations are thoroughly probed to avoid 'a similar mess'.
"Despite being restrained by ‘orders from above’, we will not stop until we have interrogated the concerned people. We need to get to the bottom of this matter,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by Lwandanyi MCA Tony Barasa and his Township counterpart Joseph Maguda. They insisted that come rain, come sunshine, those mentioned will be interrogated.
"We can’t allow money meant to fight Covid-19 to be misappropriated. All those people who took part in the corruption saga will appear before us soonest possible," Barasa said.
Maguda said, "We will eventually interrogate them. Governor Wangamati and county commissioner Hassan Abdi should understand that we mean good for the county and are not against the government directives."
He demanded that residents be told the truth of how Sh11 million was used in the fight against the virus.
Khalaba MCA Okumu Majimbo said it was wrong for the county commissioner to order police officers to enter the assembly precincts and bar MCAs from accessing it.
"The Powers and Privileges Act bars police officers from stopping MCAs from accessing the assembly precincts. We should be allowed to carry on with our investigations to ascertain the truth behind the jerrican scandal," he said.
Contacted for comment, Hassan said the county security team had received intelligence that there would be a public gathering against the government directive and that the police were deployed to prevent it.
“Let them write a letter informing us of their intended meeting. We will send our officers to assess and fumigate the assembly chambers before they are allowed to have the meeting next week," Hassan said.

No comments

Translate