KISUMU ASSEMBLY IS ACCUSED OF SQUANDERING MILLIONS OF TAXPAYERS MONEY ON USELESS FOREIGN TRIPS.

Writwea Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

RESIDENTS of KISUMU city are up in arms against the county government headed by governor Jack Ranguma of spending the taxpayers money extravagantly by sponsoring foreign trips for MCA’s with no material gains to the residents

The issue has raised political temperatures in this lakeside City, which is now stinking in filth owing to non-existence of refuse and garbage collection. With waste paper littering the town streets and broken and sewerage lines goes unrepairable for weeks, some of the broken sewerage lines passes through the residential estates thereby posing health hazard to the residents.

Some of the MCAS who are scrambling for inclusion into the numerous foreign trips are semi-illiterate persons who can gain no experience that could be beneficial to the residents due to their communication problems’. The Kisumu governor Jack Ranguma seemed to have been captivated by the MCAs and is therefore unable to control the county government’s budget making millions to go to waste.

Discontent has arisen following the revelation that sixteen Kisumu MCAs have left the country for the tour of the State of Israel amid public protest against these fruitless and no value added foreign trips by MCAS which have no value to the residents. However, sources have revealed that when the sixteen return home, another 25 MCAs will also make yet another money fubbling trip to Singapore. Later this month. These trips, says the residents, could gobbles being stinking and giving bad dour everywhere include a Central Business district {CBD}, these valueless trips could cost the Assembly as much money as Kshs 30 million, which goes to the wastes and yet the City lacked basic amenities such as street lights, persistent acute shortage of water and poor system of refuse collection which as contributed to the City to be in bad state of stinking due to left and uncollected garbage and waste papers.

Those who are reported to have traveled to Israel are members of the County who have nothing to learn in the ultra modern Israeli farming system due to their communication problems. Some of them were petty kiosk traders with no elementary education before they were elected from the various town wards to the Assembly.

They include the Assembly Speaker Ann Adul and the Clerk Nelco Sagwe. The same Assembly Speaker Ann Adul last year squandered the sums of Kshs 694,847 when she was sponsored by the Assembly to attend a conference in Atlanta, US.

In January, this year, the County government coughed out the colossal amount of money when it sent 47 MCAs on a six days educational tour of the neighboring Uganda at the average rate of Kshs 3000 expenses per day each, The Assembly was also on spot for s trip to Germany for eleven MCAS who were paid Kshs 3000 each per day expenses per day.

Upon these MCAs return from such luxury trips, they offer no explanation of the experiences they gained in those countries, which could be of benefits to the Kisumu residents. These MCAS only come home quietly without calling either a press conferences to explain the gains and experiences they had acquired as a result of their expensive trips abroad. The residents of Kisumu now viewed and maintains that these trips are amounting to naked looting of the Assembly resources and therefore must be stopped. The Central government should ma pout the plan governing foreign trips by MCAs. The Office of the President must also initiate the system of giving clearance for such trip in conjunction with the relevant ministry in charge of the devolution .

The residents now call upon the Central government to intervene and to ensure that these luxurious Childish and useless foreign trips by KISUMU MCAs are stopped forthwith.

There is also a disaster in waiting in KISUMU. The dumpsite, which is located between Kachok and the Moi’s stadium, has attracted a lot of birds, feeding on the filth. The dump site is located right in the middle of the town. It is on the direct routes of the aircraft flight coming and leaving the recently much improved Kisumu International Airport. And the risk of the bird strikes on aircraft is there. This is because the dump site is on the direct route of aircraft coming and leaving the recently expanded Kisumu International Airport. Therefore there is an urgent need fr the KISUMU County government to look for another suitable dump site. Air disasters have occurred in other countries caused by birds hitting the airplane engines in flights and causing death and injuries to the passengers.

It is even causing amusement to leaned that the Assembly is currently using street urchins [Ninjas} for the purport of refuse collections in the town. Why? This kind of negligence is impacting negatively on the residents of KISUMU. The main Kisumu Bus terminal is stinking with dirty garbage and the same is sighted n Henderso,Lumumba, Ondiek, Kaloleni and Maakasembo and other residential estates

Ends