Migori MCAs on Tuesday afternoon disrupted operations at county government offices for hours demanding the release of Sh100 million ward bursary funds.
They abducted Education executive Samson Ngariba from his office and marched him to other offices as they trailed his Finance counterpart Scholastica Obiero and chief finance officer Samuel Omuga.
Obiero and Omuga got wind of their raid and fled alongside other chief officers who were working on the supplementary budget in a hall. The more than 50 MCAs chanted slogans against Migori Governor Okoth Obado. The cash was allocated in March.
"We are shocked that this administration thrives on chaos and confusion to make them work. Our hands are tied and we're forced to take this drastic action,” George Omamba (North Kanyamkago) said.
He expressed concern that Migori was recently ranked among the best performing counties, yet its services are still poor.
"We wonder those ranking counties get their data when all allocations to Migori have been paid but we don’t have bursaries. We need our students to go to school," Omamba said.
Ngariba was at pains to explain why his office had failed to issue the bursaries weeks to the end of the third.
"The Finance department is in charge of signing the cheques. My office was done with issuing the names of beneficiaries," Ngariba said.
He said his department and that of Obiero had promised MCAs during assembly address that the cheques were to be presented last Friday.
"We have ward admins who have yet to sign off documents to clear off the cheques. It will go on smoothly since we are committed to releasing the funds," Ngariba said.
The executive later sneaked away from MCAs by joining a group of mourners retrieving a body from the Migori Referral Hospital mortuary.
The MCAs promised to continue demonstrating until the bursaries are released.
"We'll never have the future of our children auctioned by a few individuals in the executive. We'll file a motion to impeach the two executives for the delays," Hevron Maira (Muhuru Bay) said.
Similar took place on October 18 last year. The MCAs carted away bursary forms and cheques from Ngariba’s offices.
(Edited by F'Orieny)