BY INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER.

It is now official. The graft riddled Kisumu municipal council will not get a penny from this year’s allocation of the Local Authority Transfer Fund-LATF after the civic body failed to meet the set standards which would have seen it considered by the fund created a few years ago by the Local Government ministry to offer debt relief to Local Authorities countrywide.

This grim revelation means the half a million plus Kisumu residents must now brace up themselves for tough times ahead thanks to a council that has failed the test of service delivery to its overburdened tax payers. It has also clearly come out that Kisumu municipal council has been converted into a cash cow to be milked dry by a clique of corrupt council officials and civic leaders.

According to reliable information which this journalist obtained from the council, Kisumu now joins 21 other civic authorities from Nyanza province that will not benefit from the LATF allocations this year because they failed to account for the monies they received from the kitty in the past financial years.

This fact was also corroborated by Mr. Isaac Kirui the provincial Local Government Officer Nyanza who revealed the region has a total of 37 local authorities.

Kirui pointed out that most of these councils failed to stick to their budgets, or diverted funds meant for projects but failed to observe the laid down rules while others just spent the money but had nothing on the ground to show for it.

Out of the 37, only 16 civic bodies impressed the LATF allocation board from Nyanza and will therefore benefit from the next funding .According to the PLGO, those councils that performed fairly were mainly from the Kisii region of Nyanza.

Councils that could not explain how they utilized their funds from LATF allocations in the recent past included Ahero town council whose controversial hiring of 35 employees was also nullified by the PS Local government sometime this year due to what the ministry described as a sham.

Others were Oyugis town council in Homabay county which has been known to also lead in high turnover of chief officers. Bondo county council alongside several others, mainly from the Luo Nyanza region where most chief officers were reportedly using the funds to do shoddy projects and keep part of it for their own selfish interests at the expense of the tax payers also failed the test.

Kisumu municipal council recently bought posh cars for the city mayor cllr.Sam Okelo and his deputy Ken Odondi but the council could not account for its share of LATF allocations dating back to financial years -2007/08 and 2008/09. In an embarrassing encounter with members of the parliamentary committee on Local Government, it became clear that to date close to KSH .134M can not be traced from the council’s coffers.

And this reporter later learnt that this shocking revelation has now forced the local government provincial auditor -Nyanza to recommend that a special audit be done on all the council projects which were funded during the same time from the kitty by the Auditor General’s office.

Details of the council’s budget which he obtained indicates that Kisumu municipality, for instance set aside KSH. 9M in the financial year 2007/08 which was to go towards the construction of the now stalled Maendeleo market, a project which was jointly funded by the European Union at a total of KSH. 21M.

According to the documents this writer obtained , the EU was to give out Ksh. 15M while the council was to contribute KSH. 7m towards the project.

Upon completion the EU market project would have seen scores of hawkers who are currently operating along the streets of Kisumu relocated. The market would also boost the council’s earnings in terms of revenue.

But interestingly , although the council was required to only contribute just Ksh.7M towards this project , those who were working on the budget for the financial year 2008/09 curiously decided to give the project another of Ksh.15M . The motive behind this move could not be immediately established but it was clear it was not desirable.

It is even more puzzling that even after a total of Ksh. 22M was pumped into the construction of the market, the council could not just complete it.

The work so far done has been dismissed by engineers from the ministry of public works as shoddy and unconfirmed reports indicates that the three storey building market project has since been condemned.

To make it worse, the EU which was an implementing partner has now pulled out in protest. They pulled out to protest the manner in which the council handled the entire implementation process of the project which it was supporting alongside its other local government’s rural poverty alleviation programmes countrywide.

This writer further reliably learnt that the EU has demanded that the council is made to pay back all the money it received towards the market project plus interest. He also learnt that indeed it was EU that also pushed for the removal of two engineers from the council who supervised the shoddy construction.

The project led to the suspension of the two engineers who included the then town Engineer Adrian Ocheing still under probe.

When they visited Kisumu recently the parliamentary committee which is chaired by Ainamoi constituency MP Benjamin Langat put the council’s chief officers into a very awkward situation. Led by the town clerk Daniel Ole Nkere the city fathers were at pains to explain where funds allocated to several projects disappeared to because there was nothing to show for on the ground.

The team were surprised by what was taking place at the council where budgets were reportedly ’’ prepared solely to get money from the ministry but diverted as soon as allocations are received’’ without following the laid down accounting procedure,in the words of Mp Olago Aluoch.

Earlier the MPs who included the committee members , Nemeses Warugendo [Kieni] , Polyns Ochien’g [Nyakach], and area Mp Olago Aluoch hearred that among other projects, the council had extended town hall at cost of Ksh 1.9m. But it came as a rude shock to the legislators when the officers failed to show them the extended block with the clerk claiming later that they only meant it was proposed that town hall be extended.

The town clerk ,his treasurer Mr. Stephen Osiro and the town engineer were all asked to appear before committee in Nairobi as its chairman dismissed the council’s work as an open case of graft which could not be allowed at whatever cost.

They also demanded to know why the council allocated KSH.10 M for the purchase of a dumpsite during the financial year 2007/08 and 2008/09 but still no land was bought.

Close sources confided in this writer that the council was given land near Kisian in the outskirts of the town by an Asian businessman who is interested in buying the present dumping ground next to the Moi Stadium.

‘’The council has not bought any land anywhere and do not be cheated by claims that the council has bought land at Kisian. The said land was actually donated free of charge by an Asian tycoon who want to buy the prime land at the Moi Stadium near Nakumatt Mega City for private development.’’ Said the source.

Corruption at the Kisumu municipal council appears to be spreading faster than you can imagine and there is need for the anti graft body that last week launched its regional office in the lake side city to now shift its focus at the local authority if only to save the hapless tax payers of this city.

The civic wing is not spared in this game either and councilors are also accused of grabbing land council land which includes parks and council houses which they sell off to the ever greedy private developers.

A section of them are also bending the public officers ethics and economic Act by trading openly with the council with impunity.

This journalist established that one of the nominated councilors with a construction company known as Nyamsera Building Company was this year awarded a contract to renovate the council house where deputy town clerk resides in Kisumu’s up market Milimani estate.

The tendering process was allegedly never adhered to as required by the procurement rules. He is understood to have also renovated several council houses whose cost was inflated to rob the civic authority of tax payers money.

‘’This same councilor is the chairman of the audit committee that should audit activities of the council including the projects but one wonders how that can be possible if he is a major beneficiary of under hand deals.’’ said the source.

ENDS.