Siaya — Alego- Usonga Member of Parliament, Samuel Atandi is accusing top Siaya county government officials of presiding over the corruption network that saw over Sh400 million withdrawn from public coffers weeks to the general elections.
Atandi is now demanding that all senior officials, led by the county secretary Mr. Joseph Ogutu, who served under former governor, Cornel Rasanga vacate their positions to allow for independent investigations over corrupt deals.
Addressing a press conference at his offices in Siaya today, the MP said he will lead a mammoth demonstration to the county government headquarters to kick out the officials should they fail to vacate after one week.
He said that the senior officials were part of a cartel that looted the county dry and were using the ill-gotten wealth to cover up for their deeds that, he added, saw the county get a raw deal since the advent of devolution.
"The cartel from the previous regime think that they are untouchable after getting rich from stolen public funds" said the legislator adding that as leaders, they will not just sit by and watch.
Atandi said that the presence of the senior officials was likely to jeopardize the work of an independent taskforce formed recently by governor James Orengo to investigate, among other things, alleged financial impropriety and human resource audit covering the last two financial years. The taskforce is headed by former auditor general, Mr. Edward Ouko.
"In other counties such as Busia and Migori, top officials who served under the previous regimes vacated their offices immediately the current governors took office. We want to see this happening in Siaya also so that audit can be done without interference" said Atandi.
Siaya county has been on the spotlight this week following an expose that the county government lost sh. 400million shillings in suspect deals weeks to the general elections.
The revelation saw governor James Orengo issue a statement confirming that indeed things were not right at the county treasury and that investigative agencies were seized of the matter.
"Indeed, without mincing words, the treasury in Siaya is rotten. The public is aware that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is also conducting investigations of cases of misappropriation within the county government. That is the right thing to do and must be expedited," Orengo in his statement.
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A day after the governor's statement, officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission visited the county government headquarters and left behind a letter addressed to the county secretary, Joseph Ogutu demanding that his office surrenders a host of documents to the investigators.
The letter, signed by EACC's Western regional manager, Mogare Oira, said the commission was investigating alleged corrupt conduct, abuse of office and irregular payments made between 1st June 2022 and 30th September 2022 by the county government officials.
"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," read the letter dated 29th September, 2022. - Kna
