Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi has threatened to organize protests to force Siaya County’s top officials out of their positions if they do not resign within a week.
Mr Atandi asserted that officials from former governor Cornel Rasanga’s administration were to blame for the alleged willful theft of public funds.
“The cartels from the previous regime are so bold. They think because they stole a lot of money from the government they have become untouchable,” said the lawmaker.
“They have one week to vacate those offices [or] I will mobilise thousands of members of the public to forcefully throw them out.”
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Atandi added that should the officials continue their stay in office, they would interfere with an ongoing audit by a seven-member task team that Governor James Orengo had constituted.
He asserted that former officials from the previous administration left their positions in neighboring counties like Busia and Migori, and that Siaya should follow suit.
“They must leave the offices and allow the audit to be carried out without problems,” he told reporters.
“When funds are lost, the people fail to get the services. The health facilities go without drugs and children fail to go to school.”
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Siaya county has been making headlines over the last week for irregular cash withdrawals totaling Sh400 million from the county’s accounts in two weeks.
On September 29, detectives from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission went to the Siaya Treasury offices to gather proof of transactions made between June 1 and September 30.
The EACC demanded numerous documents from the County Secretary Joseph Ogutu in a bid to help with the investigations.
“Pursuant to its constitutional and statutory mandate, the commission is conducting investigations on the alleged corrupt conduct, abuse of office and irregular payments made between 1st June 2022 and 30th September 2022 by the county government officials,” the letter says.
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“To facilitate expeditious investigations, kindly provide original documents of the approved budget, approval for payments and work plans, payment voucher/imprest warrants, copies of cheques, payments schedules and receipts, cash book excerpts, bank account details where the funds were deposited.”
Earlier, Governor Orengo acknowledged that there is indeed graft in the county Treasury.
“Indeed, without mincing words, the treasury in Siaya is rotten. The public is aware that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is also conducting investigations of cases of misappropriation within the county government. That is the right thing to do and must be expedited,” said Mr Orengo.
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