Governor Stephen Sang has suspended the Kapsabet town manager David Sum in a row over Sh177 million World Bank funding to upgrade the town.
Sang has appointed Isaiah Keter to be the new manager with instructions to restore order in the town that is unplanned, filthy and full off mushrooming kiosks in the CBD.
The town is filled with uncollected garbage, the sewerage system is leaking, street families have taken up residence, there's no street lighting and cattle graze in the town throughout the day.
Sang said he suspended Sum because the town was a mess but residents have written to the World Bank claiming Sum was removed because of interference in tendering for contracts to upgrade the town.
On Wednesday, Finance executive Alfred Lagat said Sum’s removal had nothing to do with tendering for the World Bank projects.
“Sum's issues are unrelated to the tendering for the World Bank projects,” Lagat told the Star.
He did not say why Sum was removed.
Lagat did not also explain allegations that the recently inaugurated Kapsabet Municipal Board could not operate after being frustrated by senior county officials said to have interests in World Bank projects.
The business community is accusing governor Sang’s administration of undermining the municipal, board rendering it dormant though the board was to take charge of all operations in the town under its legal mandate
Keter has said that as the new town manager, he would "restore sanity" in the town, starting with the demolition of illegal structures.
“Sideshows are irrelevant. We have to restore order in Kapsabet town at all costs," Keter said.
in December last year, the Nandi County Traders and Stakeholders' meeting to discuss the town upgrade turned chaotic.
The stormy meeting became unmanageable after the MCA Fred Kemboi for Kapsabet Town Ward and Nandi county Trade executive Jacob Tanui and Sum clashed over claims made against governor Sang.
Some stakeholders claimed that senior county government officials wanted the county headquarters relocated to Nandi Hills town and were deliberately frustrating the growth of Kapsabet town.
Sang and traders in the town have also differed after some of the traders went to court to stop the county government from repossessing grabbed plots in the town.
Sang has insisted that all grabbed public land in the county will have to be repossessed.
(Edited by V. Graham)
