The Kitui county assembly leadership has dismissed Governor Charity Ngilu's accusations that it is to blame for her failure to deliver development to residents.
Assembly majority leader Peter Kilonzo and whip Stephen Musili asked Ngilu to simply admit she was a failure instead of using the legislative arm as a scapegoat.
The duo, who separately spoke to the media on Monday, laughed off claims by Ngilu that her failure was due to the Kitui assembly denying her funds to implement development and deliver services.
They said Kitui had constantly received its budget from National Treasury since 2017 without fail.
The MCAs said the total amount received in the four years was upward of Sh60 billion.
The governor had alleged that the Wiper party controlled the Kitui Assembly.
She said under the stewardship of speaker George Ndotto they had denied her funds since she was elected governor.
Ngilu spoke during a tour of Kitui rural subcounty last Thursday.
She described Wiper as a party of saboteurs as the former governor, Julius Malombe, had dragged her into court for two years after she dethroned him at the ballot in 2017.
She said due to the case, she lost valuable time to serve her Kitui electorate.
However, Kilonzo, who represents Athi ward, and Musili of Kyuso ward challenged Ngilu to explain what became of the over Sh60 billion.
The MCAs claim no unspent monies were returned to the National Treasury.
Kilonzo said Ngilu was squarely responsible for the woes currently bedeviling Kitui county.
“The other day, the Kitui government was red flagged by the auditor general for misuse of public funds and for poorly done projects.
"In fact, the auditor only fell short of naming the governor as the culprit since she is the one in charge,” Kilonzo said.
Musili said Ngilu was using escapist tactics to pass the buck for her failures.
He said during her election petition, operations of the county government did not grind to a halt.
Musili said the court case should not be an excuse for her failure to deliver.
“Our speaker George Ndotto and the MCAs have never interfered with the allocation of funds to the county government.
"At some point we would request the re-alignment of the budget with the fiscal strategy paper and once it was done we always approved the budget,” he said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
