FOUR AT KAKAMEGA ASSEMBLY ON THE SPOT OVER KSH 5M THEFT.

Report By Peter Shitabule ( Editor) 

FOUR top officers at the troubled Kakamega County Assembly could go to jail over an irregular payment of Ksh 5Million. 

Documents show that the amount was paid to a hotel in Khwisero whose proprietor is the Assembly majority leader Mr. Joel Ongoro.

A payment voucher in our procession shows the reason for payment being "meals by MCAs". It is claimed they ate meat and kienyeji worth the amount.

A source at the Assembly has told the media that the payment has kicked off a storm and divided top officers who are not seeing eye to eye.

The officers include the Speaker Mr. Morris Buluma, Clerk Laban Atemba, an accountant Mr. Mwanje and Mr. Ongoro himself.

Before this  payment was made, according to insiders, Mr. Ongoro stormed the Accountant's office demanding to know why it was taking long.

Mr. Ongoro who brags of being close to Governor Oparanya, took to threatening county staff over the delayed release of the money. 

The speaker and the Accountant who were both away when the payment was made were against it as it was processed when the later was on a sick off and the former on safari abroad. 

As if that is not enough, the approval for payment was rushed by the Clerk who is today under pressure from some independent minded MCAs to come clean on the clear case of conflict of interest.

Last week when the matter came up, we are told some cheap MCAs pocketed Ksh.10,000 each from the Clerk for their silence.

MCAs have urged the EACC to immediately launch investigations claiming the only civic body Bunge La Haki based in Mumias had gone silent on this thorny issue.

Like the proverbial three cooking stones of yore, the corruption web at Kakamega County Assembly today rotates around the four individuals.

After the unceremonious exit of Patrick Kamweesar, two very seasoned eating mouths have been left at the Assembly and they are the fulcrum on which the wheel of public money theft oscillates.

The two, Acting Clerk Laban Atemba and Speaker Morris Buluma are a true definition of blatant thievery.

While Mr. Buluma directly enjoys protection from Governor Oparanya because he is good at sharing the loot, The Clerk Atemba uses his ill- gotten wealth over the years to bribe cheap MCAs to look the other way over his thieving expeditions.

Millions of shillings are paid out to desenting individuals including the police not necessarily MCAs, to keep quite and condone the thieving from these two.

For instance, Buluma who is today battling child upkeep claims in Kakamega is surrounded like ticks by DCI officers when he goes to bars as he is a lover of the bottle, in the drinking escapades, he splashes hundreds of thousands to his “visitors“ in form of protection.

That is why despite there being an active order to have Mr. Buluma surcharged or arrested for poor use of public money in a fictitious and nonexistent Brazil trip, nothing has been done as he brags all over how he was untouchable.

For the Clerk Mr. Atemba who orchestrated the removal of his predecessor Mr. Patrick Kamwesaar illegally, his bid to run as Kakamega Governor in 2022 has been widely described as a still birth while others term it as a bad dream. It is Said he is abandoning the quest following financial constraints as the assembly has not received money for long. 

NEXT: HOW MCAS ARE CHEATED AS RESOURCES ARE LOOTED AT KAKAMEGA ASSEMBLY. THE FACES BEHING THE LOOTING. 

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