Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:31:01 -0500 [09:31:01 CDT]
SIAYA MUNICIPAL COUNCIL IN TROUBLE FOR THE LOSS OF OVER ONE MILLION SHILLINGS IN IRREGULAR PURCHASE OF A VEHICLE WHCH THE COUNCIL REJECTED AND GOT IMPOUNDED.
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:31:01 -0500 [09:31:01 CDT]
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
The Municipal Council of Siaya had budge6ted for Kshs 2.2 million for the purpose of purchasing a double-cabin pick up van. Instead a Nissan Saloon car suspected to have been purchased from street vehicles vendors in Nairobi was procured at an estimated Kshs 700,000.
Strangely enough, even the person who had won the tender to supply the Council with a vehicle of their specification was sidelined, and the saloon car sourced from unknown
source.
According to the information availed to this writer, the vehicle was later impounded by the police after it was rejected by the Councilors. This issue comes hot in the wake of the forthcoming Mayoral election.scheduled to be held early next month.
The incumbent Mayor Coun Obiero Otare, who was at one time a boda boda bicyle taxi man is facing the stiffest challenge in his life by a nominated Councilor Nicholas Owino Rajula, a businessman-cum-politician , who is the right hand man of the Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga.
The outgoing Mayor, the sources further revealed, is enjoying the backing of the Alego-Usonga MP Edwin Ochieng Yinda, the legislator who was recently reported in the press as being one of those MPs who rarely utter any word in the August House. Yinda is yet to make his maiden speech in the August House, though he is said to be actively working on the ground.
By rallying his forces behind the outgoing Mayor, Yinda is heading for a direct head-collusion with the Prime Minister, and the residents of Siaya are keen watching the unfolding political scenario.
Yinda, who is for many years was a KANU operative, and had changed and abandoned his party only at eleventh hours to secure the controversial ODM nomination during the party preliminaries in 2007, which enabled him to win the seat, had unsuccessfully contested three times previously. He is said not to be getting well with ODM followers within the constituency.
The MPs support for the unpopular Mayor is seen as an act of defiance against the ODM norms and code of conduct. It remains to be seen whether the civic leaders in Siaya will revolt against Raila Odinga’s reported choice of the town’s Mayor and re-elect Obiero. Otare.
The rumor that is commonly making the round within Siaya Municipality is that the residents now want to have an intellectual Mayor and not the semi-illiterate Boda Boda
bicyle taxi rider whom they view to be a liability rather than being an asset to the fast growing town in the Luo heartland.
The outgoing Mayor performance in the past year is wanting. The Council has no chief officers at the moment. The Town Clerk and the Town Treasurer went away under suspicious circumstances, suspected to be related to frustration they were getting from the Mayor and Civic leaders in the town.
Another major issue, which is likely to resurface and feature prominently during the Mayoral campaign is the controversial purchase of the Council vehicle, which we are informed, has since been impounded by the police after its rejection by the Council.
Some of he civic leaders have called upon the government, through the Ministry of Local government, to send sleuths of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission urgently to go and investigate the circumstances surround the purchase of the Council vehicle, which has elicited a lot of controversies. The Council has strongly disputed the sell price and also the source of supply of the vehicle, its value and price. They want the matter probed urgently, and also the alleged misuse of LATF funds by the Council.
MP Yinda could not be reached for his immediate comment, but Coun Owino Rajula stated that the time was ripe for a change of stewardship within the Siaya Municipality. “We need new and fresh blood in order to be able to effect some radical changes”. He was confidence that the civic leaders would pick and settle on him as next month.
Coun Owino Rajula, who hails from Kogelo Nyang’oma is a relative of the US President Barrack Obama Jnr. During the Obama’s swearing in Washington in January this year, he led a delegation of close to 20 members of the Kogelo sub-clan who traveled to the US for the purpose. He had to deep his hand into his pocket and footed the air ticket cost of some of the delegation.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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Subject: Fwd: IRREGULAR PURCHASE OF A VEHICLE STIRRED UP TROUBLE IN SIAYA COUNCIL
Hello Mr. Odera:
can you and your readers find out how ” New Land Reform” reform law will be implemented in Luo land if passed. I have been told that in some parts of Kenya specifically in Luo land..land registration never took hold!.I wonder how land belonging to (man) with multiple: wives,sons and daughters will be divided among these parties?. Does this mean the daughters who have been married off to their husband will claim their parent’s land with their surviving brothers and grand children?.
Is apart of Sh. 6 billions being year marked for land reform cover: marriage registration,birth certificates costs for families residing in rural areas of the country?. Without these legal papers how will surviving wives and children claim their family lands when their father pass away?. Is the government going to pass requiring man who own land to have (WILL) for their families?..who will draw these wills?..what the man cannot write or read and will he know what is in his (Will)?
From what I have red a bout Luo, land is sometimes owned by community/village how will this new law affect this arrangement?.Is possible the government is talking about formal land ownership like plantations, housing properties in cities where people may have formal papers for these properties?.
I see the government proposing various groups that will deal with land disputes but I wonder what will these people have the qualifications in: land laws, Cultural sociology, and constitutional laws to adjicate land disputes?
J. Brown…
If those land are not written then surely they will lose them. They ought to go and confirm at the ministry of lands whether somebody knowledgeable enough registered them.
According to the Registration of Lands Act, First registration cannot be nullified even if it was done by fraud. The courts have interpreted this law very strictly over years. If you such families please advice them to go and confirm the the same and if the results are negative let them register the same.