Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi has taken issue with governors from the Mt. Kenya region over the lack of development in the region despite funds allocation.
Reports from the Daily Nation on Thursday, December 19, indicate that Wamatangi, who is a member of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, lamented that the governors had received close to Ksh200 billion since 2017 but had not implemented any meaningful development in their regions.
Wamatangi further stated that apart from the money from the Treasury, the counties have managed to create their own revenue base of almost Ksh50 billion, but there was nothing to show for it.
He particularly singled out Kiambu county, where he stated that he has been pushing for the allocation of more funds but his efforts were being watered down by poor county management.
"The main concern is that, as a senator, I have been fighting to have the county allocations increased and ensure that it gets to the accounts of Kiambu. But when you interrogate how that money you have been fighting for has been used, there is nothing to show for it," the second term Senator regretted.
He also picked a war with the county executives and told them that he would be following up on their activities to ensure that transparency and accountability were the order of the day in the chaotic county.
Wamatangi intimated that he would keep fighting for accountability in the region in an effort to ensure that the area residents received the development they deserved.
Kiambu has been in the limelight in the recent past after the area governor Ferdinand Waititu was arraigned in court over charges of corruption and abuse of office.
His arraignment lifted a lid on the chaotic state of the county's books which were seen as riddled with wanton and unexplainable expenditures and open disregard for the proper procurement procedures, as Waititu made clear when he was summoned by the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee (CPAIC) in May 2019.
“What I have seen is also new to me. I think it is a misuse of the national government template because nobody could have assumed that we have such figures in our county. Because we don’t have a budget for those things and therefore there is no expense at all,” Waititu told the Senate on May 3, 2019.
He is currently out on bond and has been barred from office, which is being run by his deputy James Nyoro.
