Former Baringo Governor Stanley Kiptis lost his seat in the last elections when he failed to allocate money to the Baringo County Community Wildlife Conservation Fund kitty, sources say. The failure cost him dearly, losing to his predecessor Benjamin Cheboi.
Residents of Baringo complained of the abandonment of the Baringo County Community Wildlife Conservation Fund which was initiated by Mr Cheboi during his first team as governor but when Kiptis took over he literally killed it. Mr Cheboi first won the Baringo gubernatorial seat on 4 March; he was sworn into office on 27 March 2013.
Mr Kiptis failed to make the Fund active by refusing to allocate funds to it rendering its management team and board inactive in the absence of funds. Investigations reveal that the Fund has been dormant and with no activities in the last two years as the county government failed to allocate funds as envisioned.
It was recently established that the Fund’s financial statements reflect an opening balance was Ksh. 1,328 only. The total expenses of the Fund amounted to Ksh. 350 in respect of bank charges. Due to the non-allocation of funds, the Fund’s objective of funding the Community in the development, sustainment, exploitation, utilization and conservation of wildlife may not be achieved. It has also been discovered that the fund has a balance of Ksh. 978 held in a private Savings and Credit Co-operative Society. Residents are now appealing to Governor Cheboi to consider allocating more money to the Fund which was his brainchild by allocating funds in the coming financial year.
