Drama ensued at the Senate, on Thursday, June 22, after members of the committee formed to hear the impeachment case filed against Siaya Deputy Governor, William Oduol, took turns sitting on a Ksh1.1 million chair he was accused of illegally procuring.
The senators argued that they were testing its comfortability and ascertaining whether the amount paid was financially justifiable.
Oduol, when questioned by the senators about the exorbitant cost, firmly denied any involvement in its procurement. The senators expressed their disappointment with the hefty price tag, especially since the chair lacked any unique features.
In his defence, Oduol apportioned blame to the county’s procurement officer for authorising the purchase of the chair and agreed that it was not worth the outrageous amount.
Oduol argued that the procurement officer must have been misled into believing that the chair possessed orthopaedic benefits. Based on his own assessment, he concluded that the chair was a regular, ordinary seat without any exceptional qualities.
“I look at that seat and am shocked that we spent Ksh1.1 million on an average standard chair. In my assessment, it is not orthopaedic. Maybe they used that argument to justify the price.
“The accounting officer and the head of procurement should be questioned whether we got value for money in purchasing that chair,” Oduol countered, asking the Senate to crack its whip on his juniors.
Orthopaedic chairs are designed to properly support the spine and body and ensure one sits in the correct position. They can be adjusted to provide temporary positional relief to aches and pains and offer more comfort.
Contrary to allegations that he coerced county officials to purchase the chair, Oduol maintained that he neither forced nor persuaded them to renovate his office. In his view, the procurement officer ought to take responsibility for failing to leverage his expertise to assess the true value of the seat.
He cited statements filed by other county officials who absolved him from the scandal, arguing that their affidavits were omitted from the presented evidence.
“If indeed Ksh18 million was used to renovate my office without the same having been budgeted for as alleged, it is the head of procurement as the accounting officer who is at fault.
“It was his responsibility to ensure that the said amount was budgeted for before commencing any procurement process. I did not force anyone to do the renovations,” Oduol, who is fighting to retain his post, told the committee.
Senators, however, hard-pressed him to clarify if he investigated the procurement flaws or raised the alarm after realising the seat was overvalued.
Oduol responded by claiming that he verbally asked for the invoice but was never provided with any relevant documents.
"I was never involved in the evaluation and I kept asking for the invoice but it was not given to me. The requests that I made were verbal," he underlined.
Members of Siaya County Assembly approved Oduol's impeachment motion on Monday, May 29, a day after he was expelled from ODM for allegedly working in cahoots with the Kenya Kwanza government to sabotage his boss, James Orengo. The Senate will either uphold or nullify his ouster.
