Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka is on the spot after advertising a tender to construct his official residence and that of his deputy.
In the tender advertised in the dailies on Thursday, January 26, the County Government through the Department of Housing and Municipalities invited bids for the works.
“The county government of Bungoma through the Department of Housing & Municipalities wishes to invite your bid for the following works,
“Proposed erection and completion of the governor and deputy governors residence within Bungoma county,” read part of the statement.
The bid bond for the Governors residence was capped at Ksh 1.5 million while that of the Deputy Governor was for Ksh 800,000.
According to the document, the tenders/bids would take place at the boardroom at Bungoma Annex opposite the governor's office.
However, Lusaka's move to construct a governor's residence rubbed many the wrong way, including Bungoma residents and Kenyans online.
“For five years I worked at the County Government of Bungoma, Governor Wycliffe Wangamati lived in his house in Ndengelwa while Deputy Governor Ngome Kibanani lived in his house in Khaoya Estate. We never had and we don't know any existence of Governor or Deputy Governor residences,” one Facebook user complained.
“They are planning to build one. They are not maintaining, but building one for the first time,” Dennis Watila stated.
"But what do you expect? This is the same Governor who bought wheelbarrows at over Ksh 100k each and was voted back to the seat. Let the residents of Bungoma reap what they sowed,"
Lusaka who is serving his second term was in murky waters during his first term when he was accused of buying wheelbarrows at exorbitant prices.
In 2015, an audit report revealed that 10 wheelbarrows were bought at Ksh109,320 each, exposing massive corruption in the county government.
It meant that the administration spent a whopping Ksh1,093,200 to acquire the wheelbarrows.
While receiving the report then, Lusaka indicated that officers at the veterinary department had inflated the price of metal hooks to Ksh 32,500.
Lusaka would further state that he had ordered the survey of the current market price of the special wheelbarrows after the tendering committee suggested that the current price was between Ksh78,000 to SKsh112,320.
It was stated that the wheelbarrows resembled those used by the Kenya Meat Commission while packaging export goods.
Governors suffered a huge blow in December 2022, after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) maintained that top government officials who had not constructed residential homes would be forced to foot the bill.
In October 2022, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja rejected a plan by the County government to splash Ksh500 million on his official residence.
Lusaka, a career civil servant, lost his seat in 2017 to Wangamati, before making a comeback in August 2022.
