The Wajir government should be investigated over alleged abuse of office by top officials, including Governor Ahmed Abdullahi, the Senate Finance Committee has said. Wajir residents had petitioned the Senate to investigate the county over human resource malpractices and misappropriation of funds.
“There is substance to the allegations by the petitioner (Wajir residents),” chairman Billow Kerrow said yesterday, when he tabled the Wajir 2013-14 financial report to the Senate.
The committee has recommended that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Director of Public Prosecutions investigate Wajir officials over award of contracts and tenders. It also wants the National Cohesion and Integration Commission to evaluate the ethnic diversity of county staff and report to the Senate in three months.
The senators have noted that there was “discrimination in the allocation of job opportunities in favour of areas in which members of the governor’s clan reside”. Kerrow said the alleged violations of procurement laws through single sourcing of various procurement activities and irregular schemes of awarding contracts should be investigated by the EACC and DPP and legal action taken. He said the beneficiaries were people close to the governor, including his clan.
