•Lonyangapuo, deputy ordered to appear before Senate committee on September 10
•Petitioners say Atudonyang is paid for no work while he has another job in the US
Senators have launched investigations into claims West Pokot Deputy Governor Nicholas Atudonyang who has been away in the US for nearly two years earns a salary.
The Senate Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations Committee has summoned Governor John Lonyangapuo to explain why his administration continues to pay Atudonyang.
Atudonyang will be forced to travel from US to explain to the Senate why he is pocketing taxpayers' money without working.
“The governor will appear on September 10 and he will be with his deputy. We understand he (Atudonyang) is in the US. We are looking for his address and we are going to write to him,” committee chairman John Kinyua said.
The probe follows a petition by three residents of West Pokot led by Denis Ruto Kapchok.
The residents petitioned the Senate through Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei to compel Atudonyang to return to the county or his salary be stopped.
“The deputy governor has abdicated his duties and in effect violated the integrity section of the law that guides the conduct of state officers,” Kapchok said when he appeared before the committee on Thursday.
He said residents are shouldering the burden of paying the deputy governor while he is engaged in another gainful activity in the US. Atudonyang allegedly works as a medical doctor.
Kapchok and his co-petitioners argued that the governor has been overwhelmed by work because of the vastness of the county.
“We have 20 wards and the size of West Pokot is equivalent to that of the former Western Province. The governor has to traverse the entire place. Sometimes he travels abroad and leaves no one behind,” Kapchok said.
He urged the Senate to change laws to stipulate clear roles of the deputy governor and those of the governor.
In May, Lonyangapuo told the Senate County Public Accounts and Investments Committee that his deputy was away on medical grounds. He was looking after his baby who was born prematurely.
Atudonyang’s long absence from office has been flagged by the Auditor General in his 2017-18 report on the financial operations of the county executive.
Lonyangapuo said Atudonyang was unable to come back to take up his role as deputy governor because he was still serving immediate “sick family”.
“The West Pokot deputy governor has been coming and going back. Whoever is giving the narration that he has been out for two years, that is not true,” Lonyangapuo explained, insisting that the deputy governor lasted visited his county in December 2018.
“However, he has a personal challenge because of his kid who was born prematurely and he is the one taking care of her.”