Governor Awiti blames 'migrating fish' for reduced county revenue

Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti on Thursday had Senators in stitches with his hilarious explanation for the dwindling local revenue collection by his administration. Awiti had appeared before the Senate County Public Accounts and Investments Committee alongside top county Finance officers to respond to audit queries raised by Auditor General.

The governor was put to task to explain why the revenue collection has declined by more than 60 per cent in the past four years. Hilariously, the governor said tough economic times, occasioned by migration of fish from Kenyan waters in Lake Victoria to neighbouring Uganda, was the cause of the low collections. This parked room burst into laughter with the county Senator, Moses Kajwang', who chairs the committee, struggling to ask how the governor knew that fish had migrated to Uganda waters.

A lawmaker from Western must be having serious sleeping problems as he rarely stays awake in committee and plenary meetings. The MP, with a penchant for speaking loud, normally gets to the slumberland immediately he enters the chamber or a committee room only to wake up at a point to ask questions that have also been asked and responded to by the witnesses. When reminded, the lawmaker doesn't take any directive and insists that he still has to ask a question for his constituents and get a response. At times, he engages in bitter exchanges with fellow MPs when he is called to order. Last week, he was sleeping only to wake up insisting he had to protect the agency that was being probed by a House watchdog committee.

ARE some lawmakers taking Kenyans for fools? Well, on Wednesday, Pro-Deputy President William Ruto MPs led by MPs Kimani Ichungwah (Kikuyu) and Caleb Kositany (Soy) said in a press conference at Parliament Buildings that Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa was flown to South Africa for treatment after being injected with a poisonous substance in the Kibra melee that saw rowdy youths snatch his signature red cap. Just minutes after making the claim at Parliament's media centre, Barasa's pictures emerged on his verified social media accounts full with videos confirming he was in South Africa for official parliamentary business. Just how do politicians take Kenyans?