• For the second day in a row, Oparanya supervised demolition of kiosks in the town even as he declared that he no longer had trust in his staff.
• Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala said it was wrong for the county government to evict the traders from their current locations without giving then adequate notice.
Image: HILTON OTENYO
Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya has surprised residents by taking it upon himself to lead a cleanup operation in Kakamega town.
For the second day in a row, Oparanya supervised demolition of kiosks in the town even as he declared that he no longer had trust in his staff.
“I no longer trust anyone including these ones standing here behind me. From today I will do things myself because I have discovered that my administration is full of cartels engaged in business instead of working for the people,” he told residents in the town Friday morning.
“We have discovered that most of these kiosks were owned by people employed in my government and are charging Sh5, 000 rent for the kiosks and do not even remit the Sh1, 000 per kiosk per month as required,” he said.
Oparanya argues that the kiosks are an eyesore on the town as he strives to ensure its upgrade to city status.
But Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala said it was wrong for the county government to evict the traders from their current locations without giving them adequate notice and an alternative place they should move to.
“As much as they want to re-organize the town, it is unfair for the government to pull down structures by traders from whom they permitted to operate by issuing them with permits,” he said.
But sources within the county government said that the governor’s behaviour had become impulsive lately.
“He has been summoning senior officials and dressing them down, something unusual with him and we are suspecting that he could be in a panic of sorts. We suspect there is something wrong and he is fending off his anger on us,” a senior staff who declined to be named told the Star.
Residents said that Oparanya should go for persons who have grabbed public roads in the town and the lands meant to be a buffer zone for the Nabongo sewer ponds and erected storey buildings instead of harassing small traders.
During the operation, Oparanya ordered the closure of Iko Toilets that serve the public saying that what they paid the county government was peanuts.
The county government has not build a single public toilet in the town center since coming into existence seven years ago.
Meanwhile, Oparanya has directed all departmental accounting officers (Chief Officers) to give financial reports on their respective dockets on a monthly basis starting this month in what was seen as a way of taking efficiency and accountability a notch higher.
The chief officers will be presenting the reports to a team led by himself and consisting of the deputy governor, CECs, heads of parastatals and sub county administrators, among others.
"The financial reports should include status of imprests, outstanding or pending bills, as well as status of project implementation," he said.
In addition, the Chief Officers will be tasked with reporting on the absorption rates of both development and recurrent budgets and also give account of the status of budget implementation.
They will be required to give breakdown of the revenue collected in their departments, status of project implementation including name of project, commencement date and expected completion date, status of flagship projects and the status of both Internal and External Audit reports in the departments in their reports.
"I have received concerns that staff transfers and disciplinary cases are not being conducted fairly in some quarters and for this reason the department of Public Service and Administration in conjunction with the County Public Service Board should give a report on the total staff establishment and all available vacancies in the county, all transfers effected, as well as the deaths, resignations and retirement of all staff,"the governor said.