• Funds were meant to promote sporting activities and nurture youth talent
• MCA says only Sh40,000 given to people purported to be sports committee members after failing to involve administrators
Image: File
A group of Homa Bay MCAs say they will impeach Sports executive Fredrick Odero over alleged misuse of Sh9.7 million.
The lawmakers approved the amount this financial year to promote sporting activities and nurture youth talent.
The Cyprian Awiti Youth and Sports Tournament 2019 was supposed to be held in all 40 wards.
Assembly Sports Committee chair Evaline Anyango said MCAs agreed that each ward is given at least Sh210,000 to facilitate the competition.
The money was to be given to ward administrators who would form committees of six to organise and run the programmes in each ward.
Speaking to journalists in Homa Bay town on Thursday, Majority Whip Richard Ogindo (Kwabwai) and Michael Nyang’i (Kochia) claimed the funds have been misused.
Odero dismissed the claims.
The executive argued that some MCAs wanted to collude with ward administrators to squander the funds
Odero said they estimated to spend Sh7 million at the end of the tournament.
“There was no money the county lost in the tournament. MCAs should do their oversight role without malice,” Odero said.
Ogindo maintained the cash was misused. He argued that the Homa Bay Sports department gave Sh40,000 to people purported to be sports ward committee members, after failing to involve administrators.
The Majority Whip said he is preparing to mobilise other MCAs to remove Odero from office on grounds of financial irregularities involving public funds.
“The executive disregarded the rules on how the money was to be utilised. Homa Bay assembly wants to know the whereabouts of more than Sh150,000 for each ward,” Ogindo said.
Ogindo also said the sports docket was moribund.
The Kwabwai MCA said the department also failed to explain how it spent Sh4 million the assembly allocated to promote sport events in the previous financial year (2017-18).
“The majority of MCAs are not convinced how funds allocated for sports department were utilised. Odero should prepare for impeachment because residents cannot tolerate this," Ogindo added.
Nyang’i said asked Governor Awiti to call for an investigation, saying Odero should step aside to allow for this.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)