Why I skipped Ruto's Vihiga tour – Osotsi

Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi has explained why he snubbed President William Ruto's five-day tour of Western Kenya, terming his visit 'political theatrics'.

Osotsi highlighted eight reasons for ignoring Ruto's visit to his county on Tuesday including being side-lined from the planning process and launch of projects that had already been commissioned.

He also cited the lack of commitment by Ruto to implement details of a memorandum of understanding by Vihiga County leaders and negative rhetoric against Azimio leader Raila Odinga as part of the reasons for his absence.

The vocal senator named what he termed as a lack of transparency and forceful takeover of devolved functions by Ruto and violation of revenue sharing to counties as part of his reasons.

In a statement he released on Wednesday, Osotsi claimed that his decision to give the tour a wide berth was informed by a firm commitment to upholding the core values and principles that guide "my Senate representation and oversight."

The Senator claimed that Ruto's tour to Western Kenya, particularly Vihiga County, was a political mission disguised as developmental in purpose.

"The tour, despite being presented as a developmental endeavor, is purely a UDA affair. It emerged as a desperate attempt to resuscitate the fortunes of the UDA and its surrogates in Vihiga County," Osotsi said.

"This is particularly pertinent given the inability of UDA to deliver on electoral pledges coupled with punitive taxation and high cost of living, causing disenchantment among Vihiga County residents and the wider Kenyan populace."

The Senator also cited exclusion from planning the tour as the duly elected senator and a senior leader in the county as part of the reasons why he skipped the tour.

"I was neither invited nor involved in any preliminary tour planning meetings by the organisers. This omission affirmed that the event was a UDA Party affair and representatives from the Kenya Kwanza coalition, devoid of genuine governmental or developmental intentions, contrary to the impression presented to Vihiga County residents," he said.

Osotsi said there was also a lot of negative narrative targeting Azimio supporters especially those that targeted my Azimio party leader Raila Odinga.

"Disseminating unfavorable and demeaning narratives sought to alienate the majority of Azimio supporters in the county. This approach perpetuated division rather than fostering unity of purpose and cooperation," he said

According to Osotsi, there was also a lack of feedback on a prior development memorandum by county leaders that was submitted to the president on January 18, 2023.

He argued that all elected leaders from the county, and at the invitation of the Office of the President, had discussions with key government officials under the chairmanship of the CS for Interior Professor Kindiki and agreed to have a memorandum officially delivered to Ruto's office.

"Unfortunately, it has been seven months since and no subsequent feedback or progress reports have been provided on the developmental initiatives discussed," he regretted.

"This absence of feedback has majorly been compounded by the assertions by key UDA leaders that some Kenyans are not shareholders despite being taxpayers."

The Senator claimed that the president was launching multiple projects and county government projects during his tour of the region.

He said that the proposed projects within the tour itinerary raised credibility concerns and ''clearly deceived the people of Vihiga County.''

"Many of these projects had already been inaugurated or initiated by Ruto during his tenure as Deputy President, while others were attributed to and had already been initiated or inaugurated by the former President Uhuru Kenyatta," he said.

"Furthermore, several of the listed projects were funded by Vihiga County rather than the national government, casting doubt on the overarching developmental intent and pointing it more to political theatrics."

Citing transparency and accountability concerns as the other reason why he skipped the President's tour, Osotsi said that some county projects have unresolved audit queries that must be explained and resolved before further funding by either level of government.

"Further co-funding such projects without addressing the underlying queries is a blatant violation of the Public Financing laws," he said.

The Senator identified what he termed as a hostile takeover of devolved functions like the affordable housing project without proper legality and public participation as another reason for his absence.

"Housing is a devolved function and it is unconstitutional for the National Government to purport to directly carry out this function with minimal involvement of the County government as is required by law," he said.

"Furthermore, there is no evidence of the existence of an appropriate legal instrument between the two levels of government as required under Article 187 of the Constitution. Additionally, the proposed county aggregation and industrial park project faced legal and financial issues."

He said that the projects bypassed proper procurement and financing disclosures with the inherent risk of diverting funds from more viable endeavors.

"The demand that the County of Vihiga should contribute Sh250 million towards the industrial park project will further strain the hugely stretched development budget of the county and divert public funds that would otherwise be targeted to more viable projects.

"This intrusion into county functions amounts to a hostile takeover of devolved functions hence further undermining devolution," he said.

Citing what he termed as violations of the law on revenue share, the senator claimed that the national government is not adhering to the law.

Osotsi said that the current approach risks financial impropriety and undermines the oversight powers of the Senate and county assemblies.

He said that while the Senate passed the County Additional Revenue Allocation Act, 2022 to guard against arbitrary transfers of funds, allocations to counties are outside the approved equitable share allocation.