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Women leaders in Siaya County are asking education CS Ezekiel Machogu to move with speed and disband the entire board of Siaya Institute of Technology citing gender imbalance. According to the college’s charter, the board should be diverse in its composition with a membership of 9 Individuals including the Chairman and the Secretary; the Principal is the Secretary to the Board.
The institute’s charter further reads “And not more than two-thirds of the members of the Board shall be of the same gender. The Board Chair is appointed directly by the Cabinet Secretary while members of the board shall be appointed by the Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Education after wide consultation from strategic partners and individuals who share the same value, and commitments and have the interest to work with SIT.
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Siaya Institute Board Members Caught Up In Tax Evasion Racket
Principal is Daniel Randa
According to the institute’s website, the Board’s Chairman is Moses Kawa while the secretary who is also the principal is Daniel Randa. Other board members are Joel Odhiambo, Lucas Ocharo, Oscar Mjumba and Jona Owitti.
The board is composed of members of the same gender. It is against this that women leadership in the region is now demanding that the entire board be sent home and reconstituted afresh to take interest and care of women and persons living with disabilities.
But even as pressure mounts on the CS to reconstitute the board, it is feared that the male-only board has been involved in corrupt practices and mismanaging taxpayer’s money. Sources claimed that the board has been earning huge allowances and failing to account for them. In the period between 2020 and 2021, the board’s expenses were Ksh. 2,224,240.
Of great concern is that the board pocketed Ksh. 1,396,500 from which taxes were not deducted contrary to Section 5(2)(a) of the Income Tax Act Cap 470 which requires sitting allowances to be taxed at 30% of the gross figure and be remitted to the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes.
It is not known why the board paid themselves such huge amounts of money and failed to deduct Ksh. 418,950 as taxes. The board members should therefore be surcharged to refund the money and remit it to KRA. The board is also under pressure to explain the circumstances under which it declared Ksh. 15,847,500 as bad and doubtful debt, this is a loss of taxpayers’ money.
