35 LAWS OF LOOTING BY GOVERNOR OTICHILO.
In this 35-point blow by blow summary dubbed the ‘Untold Truth', we detail how Vihiga County may never recover after being destroyed to the core by Governor Wilbur Ottichilo.
Following the highly publicised County Address delivered by Governor Wilber Ottichilo on Friday, December 18, 2020 from 10:00am, Eshikumo2030 sought to highlight what was not be addressed in the speech.
We interrogated officers from the government, and former County Secretary Francis Ominde, who helped reveal a list of some of the rot in the county so that people can have a glimpse of what it looks like.
“If we do not rise up now and demand accountability, our County may be wound down. Those who are aspiring to run for Governorship in 2022 may not have a Government to look forward to if they don’t act now,” Mr Ominde said.
Below are the 35 ways the county has been raped:
1. The County siphons between Sh30million to Sh40million every month through Ghost Earners, something the Governor is fully aware of. The Governor knows that the County submits a different payroll to the Controller of Budget from the one that they use for paying. This he will not tell you because that was money that could have gone to development to assist the people of Vihiga.
2. Health workers have been working for over 15 months without pay. The man at the helm has no empathy or ability to ensure his workers are paid. Does the Governor care about your health? The Governor has only authorised payment of just a mere one month salary for 219 health workers and it’s still shrouded in mystery since they are playing with the names of who is to be paid and who will not be paid.
3. Vihiga United FC and Vihiga Queens have youthful boys and girls who have carried the county’s flag at National Level and now Queens will be doing the same on the International stage. It is sad to note that these boys and girls have not been paid since June this year. The teams’ Executive Committee has incurred costs from their own pockets yet Ottichilo is on record saying that he is going to make sure that they get full sponsorship from the Sports Act that has the least amount of funding to even support the two teams for three months. The County has processed claims emanating from the games but have never reimbursed the teams’ Executive what is rightfully theirs. The other sports will definitely get no support with the move that this Governor has taken.
4. The county does not have a human resource plan. Three years after assuming office, Ottichilo is still planning. No wonder persons are employed without a budget. I challenge the Governor to share with the public the Vihiga County Human Resource Plan. We continue to lose millions through the payroll. Your Governor is not ashamed to tell you that he does not know how many workers are in Vihiga yet he keeps authorising payment of Ghost Earners. Does he have business being your Governor?
5. The County Assembly has never asked the County Government for the Vihiga County Public Service Act to ensure that there is a systematic way that the County Public Service Board shall operate to guide on Recruitment, Transfers, Disciplinary Procedures, Who signs the Employment letters, Internship, Attachments, Promotions, Salary Increments, among other Human Resource procedures. That is the main reason as to why the County can get into such many Human Resource blunders that costs the taxpayers extra court fees in resolving the many labour cases.
6. The County Government appointed Liaison Officers to non-existing offices. I am sure you know sub-county and ward administrators. The Governor has added there liaison officers even without creating the offices. These people draw a salary of almost 4million every month from the public coffers.
7. The Chief of Staff Vihiga County at Job Group S with a gross salary of over 250,000/= is a retired P1 teacher namely James Otari. He is supposed to supervise Dr. Jairus Amayi (PHD), legal and political advisors and staff in the Governor’s office. This is a Governor’s staff and in his wisdom or lack thereof he decided to violate public service laws for what he calls political expedience.
8. The Director of Communication in Vihiga County, Job Group R, Victor Wetende, is a Diploma holder. Another appointee and relative of the Governor. The Governor has balkanised the county and hides behind sub-tribes while unduly harassing and discriminating some of the sub-tribes in the county. He has been heard saying “…obwami bulindwe…” to his kinsmen. This is a very sad statement given that all Vihigans are suffering because of his mis-governance.
9. People of Luanda, did you know that Noah Okaya is the Nairobi Office Liaison Officer? His office is at Delta House in Westlands Nairobi? I am sure you are wondering whether Delta House, Westlands Nairobi is now in Luanda. People of Vihiga are you also aware that this Governor has authorised the vehicle that the former Governor used to use KBV115K to be the private property of Noah Okaya? This is pure Abuse of Office but our County assembly members can never ask for such inventory.
10. The County Government of Vihiga conducts its interviews in Kisumu. Jobless Vihigans are forced to travel to Kisumu for interviews for jobs in Vihiga. You maybe a victim. You may be aware of such. The County Public Service Board has perfected the art of doing interviews without any shortlist being published for the general public to know who has been shortlisted for interviews and yet our youth spend lots of money to make their documents available for these exercises all in vain.
11. The Municipal works currently being undertaken are being done without any legal framework. There is no Municipal Charter that has ever been gazetted for Vihiga County for these works. The County Assembly has taken a back seat and has never been interested in requesting for that document.
12. Vihiga Municipal is actually just supposed to be Mbale Municipality as per the Urban Areas and Cities Act. The Governor has managed to escape this question and the Assembly has refused to ask this question because their pockets will not be well taken care of.
13. Each and every County had been apportioned Kshs1.25B for the KUSP projects for every Municipality. But for Vihiga County we have perfected the art of stealing that money. With two years remaining what can we say has value for money in the projects done?
14. The cost of high masts lighting done range from Sh4.9 million to as high as Sh6.3million yet Rural Electrification Authority did 10 high masts within Vihiga County at a cost of Sh2.8 million each. Dear Vihigans ask yourself if we had maintained the REA figures what other developments could we have done or how many more other high masts could we have put in this Municipality to enhance security.
15. The first shambolic beautification project from St. Claire’s Junction to the Hospital Mortuary that was done cost the County a whopping Sh67 million. You have all witnessed how the County changed almost four different contractors during that period and still works done are below par as compared to other counties. This means that the procurement was fraudulent and the monies were moved to a personal account for them to be able to do that very shoddy job. No designs can be availed to show what the intended outcome of this project was. Our lazy Assembly has never questioned that serious anomaly.
16. The funny County Monument that also had three reconstructions with three different contractors and now seems to be an unfinished project is also lying idle at the County Headquarters parking lot and yet Sh22 million was spent on it. Vihiga Oversight arm seems to have gone blind to this date. Also here members you can detect the element of public funds being pushed to personal accounts to control such projects.
17. The famous County Data Center with a price tag value of Sh95 million has seen the young and innocent staff being paraded at the DCI offices to record statements yet the person(s) responsible for ruining the careers of these staff sit somewhere within the County playing the ‘I don’t know card’. These monies would have built some ward offices for the ward administrators to enhance service delivery more than fattening the pockets of some known culprits.
18. The current beautification project taking place in Mbale seems to look nice but the price value is what is puzzling. The cost of the project is Sh148 million and so far what you are seeing on the ground has already been assessed by a project consultant who was never prequalified or even the works advertised. The payments done so far amount to Sh112 million. Kindly ask the Governor if what has been done in Mbale can really be that costly? These monies would have ensured works are done up to Kegoye, Mbihi, Mukuli, Broadpark, Mbale High and even a bit of the Mukingi road. But because of greed we are more interested in eating public coffers’ funds.
19. The road to Governor’s residence will cost the County Sh212 million for only 2.8kms. During the last regime the Mbale headquarters road was tarmacked at a cost of Sh 33million although auditors verified and said it should have been Sh28 million. Members of Vihiga County please ask yourself why would such a road cost the County Sh212 million.
20. The Governor’s residence which was overpriced at Sh145 million has already stalled and no budget has been allocated for it. This will be another white elephant project in the County that has already taken up Sh50 million. Yet we are also doing a road to this white elephant project at Sh212 million. People of Vihiga County ask yourself the people you choose to go and be the oversight team at the Assembly are they truly representing your interests or are they just thinking of themselves.
21. MCAs slashed the Ward Sports Fund to a paltry Sh200,000 per ward. You wonder which tournament will cost Sh200,000 unless it is just 4 matches. This will be a total rip off to the youth in the county
22. The Governor has clearly shown disregard for the rule of law and that is why the County currently is handling over 300 cases in court and most of them are pointing to Abuse of Office for this person. Ottichillo’s impunity, ignorance and arrogance has resulted into a lot off public interest litigations which have ended up costing the county a lot of money to defend them. This is money that could have been added to the bursaries for our needy students
23. Your MCAs right now are asking for monies for ward tournaments yet we know very well that they just want to eat that money. Which games are we organising yet we are just two weeks to the end of the year? I can just say maybe mind games alone.
24. Your MCAs are busy right now asking for bursary money, ask yourself what is it they want to do with that money? Which exams have pupils or students done? Ask the County if the Bursary for the last financial year was released. Your guess is as good as mine.
25. Ask yourselves these MCAs which reports have they ever released to the general public to show that they are actually doing their oversight role. COVID funds were misused and the County Assembly has never issued a report on what were their findings. This can only point to MCAs being bribed by the executive not to release the report.
26. Your Governor set up a Vihiga County COVID Fund Account for resource mobilising funds. It is evident enough that even himself has not been able to give a report on how much they have raised to date meaning that it was just a PR exercise used to misappropriate County funds. The only monies there are the Sh230,000 that was raised during the function. County Executive has never contributed to the kitty and also the County Assembly has never contributed a coin to the kitty. This is purely against the proposals of the President as well as the Council of Governors.
27. To our contractors, the majority of projects issued in Vihiga are normally to residents outside the County and so capital flight is at its best. Evident enough was the beautification project where most of the workers were from Kisumu. Also, there has been loss of investor interest in Vihiga. The Export Processing Zone dream died, local businesses are slowly dying as county resources are spent outside the county or mostly paid to contractors outside the county.
28. 30% of the tenders to the youth will never be achieved because this government is looking at who will oil their hands more than empowering our Youth, Women and Persons Living with Disability. This data cannot be accessed because the County does not adhere to submitting their reports to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority which is a key requirement. Our Assembly lacks the capability to even ask if that threshold has ever been met.
29. Historical Pending Bills will never be cleared in the County because the Governor and his finance team have perfected the art of making sure that only those who give back something are the ones to be cleared. The Bills have been piled in Finance which is against the law since they are not the department that originated these projects. Also bear in mind that the County also is not able to meet its obligations on the own source revenue.
30. The Governor has also through his Finance team increased the fees and charges for traders without the authority of the County Assembly but cries from the business community to their representatives have fallen on deaf ears. Some fees and charges introduced to the licenses lack legal basis and I will soon institute proceedings to stop the County Executive Finance Department from extorting monies from traders.
31. The County Human Resource Audit exercise will never see the light of day since the persons tasked to do this exercise are so junior. This Governor does not observe any hierarchy in terms of giving instructions but when there are problems that is when he starts blaming it on the Department heads.
32. Each Chief Officer was allowed to draw Sh1 million to bribe Auditors so as to be rated favorably even in the face of glaring problems and lack of development despite the money being spent. Vihigans, this is how your money is used as you wait for medicines in your dispensaries.
33. In conclusion, The County Executive and the County Assembly have also resolved to misuse public funds by making sure that the oversight arm extorts the Executive into paying them so many per diems that don’t even make sense. In one example, the main reason as to why the County Budget process always faces hurdles is because the House leadership makes sure that all the committees in the Assembly write letters to the Executive with their names and bank accounts to be paid per deims for five to six days or else their budgets shall be slashed. This is totally against the law as the Assembly already has their own money to oversee what is being done by the Executive. Vihigans you can clearly now understand why you have a lame duck County assembly that shall never oversee the Executive given these arrangements that the Governor has organised with the House leadership that depletes monies that would have done activities and development programs to boost the County Residents. You will be told that H.E. Rev. Akaranga left pending bills or did not do one thing or another; this is more than three years since Ottichilo took over promising to correct all the mess he said he had seen while an MP. It is obvious he had no plan and if he had a plan, it had nothing to do with the people of Vihiga. Ask yourself if this is truly the leadership you expect to give you a new face in Vihiga County.
34. He further noted that even in the face of a glaring pandemic, Ottichilo would stop at nothing, but rather look for any opportunity to spend county’s money, through organising a rally at Kidundu grounds and thereafter have lunch served at the county’s expense. Section 30(1) of the County Governments Act provides for the functions of the Governor and there are functions that Ottichilo has never performed since he assumed office. For instance, he has never submitted to the county assembly an annual report on the implementation status of the county policies and plans as mandated by Section 30(1)j of the County Governments Act. Yet, even the County Assembly has never demanded from him. I challenge anyone to show me one copy of the annual report on implementation status for Vihiga County. There is none. The County Assembly does not even know such a thing exists. This is the true state of the County.
35. Another basic function of the Governor is found at Section 30(1)I of the County Governments Act. It provides that the Governor shall by a decision notified in the county gazette, assign to every member of the county executive committee, responsibility to ensure the discharge of any function within the county and the provision of related services to the people. This is among the very first things a reasonable Governor does. There is no gazette notice by the Governor assigning County Executive Committee Members responsibilities. He has never. A clear demonstration of lack of leadership. Instead, if you have had a chance to talk to the Governor, he must have told you that he has ‘useless and lazy Ministers’. Your Governor would rather spare time for village gossip instead of performing his functions under the law. Your Governor is so afraid of sitting down with his CECMs in Cabinet to pass any Executive decision because he knows that the CECMs will challenge his thoughts and put the necessary legal structures into the discussion. How have CECMs stopped him from submitting reports to the County Assembly? How have the CECMs stopped him from gazetting the assignment of responsibilities for his Ministers? Again, your representatives at the County Assembly have never demanded this. The result of the lack of leadership is uncoordinated governance that does not have a structure. If you are a keen follower of Vihiga County you are aware that there are multiple infighting. They are sponsored by the Governor.
Ominde noted that these ‘Untold Truth’ sought to undress and expose the County as it is so that people may see the true state of affairs at the County.
“My hope is that by people knowing the true status of things at the County and its leadership, they will be angry enough to get up and demand change and a difference. It is high time the people of Vihiga exercised citizen’s sovereignty and direct oversight since the elected representatives are not capable or are not willing or both; the latter being the most likely,” he said.
Extra information availed by Daily Express blog.
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