By The Weekly Vision
Nandi Governor Stephen Sang is a man under siege from a majority of the MCAs who are not on good terms with him over claims that he has ignored them. The MCAs say the Governor continues to ignore proposals they made to him that may have seen rapid development taking place in their respective wards.
The MCAs say that under Sang’s administration, there has been “little” to show in teams of development despite the county receiving billions of shillings in development funds from the national government, they further claim that several projects have stalled during his tenure. Some of the MCAs were even plotting to initiate an impeachment motion in the Assembly against him but the threat fizzled out when operatives in President William Ruto’s government got wind of the plan, they warned the MCAs against the move. The MCAs are now demanding the governor explain the circumstances of why the county has not been able to collect enough revenue.
This fresh demand comes against a backdrop of more damning claims that Governor Sang had violated the law by hiring a private firm to print single business and public health permits yet he was supposed to source the receipt books from the government printers. It is alleged that the private firm contracted by the governor may have been involved in the printing of fake receipt books which are currently being used by certain corrupt county revenue collection officers to defraud the county.
Reports indicate that the County Executive had budgeted to collect Ksh. 405,408,260 as own generated revenue but only realized Ksh. 278,408,973, resulting in an under-collection of Ksh. 126,999,287 or 69%, hence the County failing to meet their target. It has also been noted that verification of the daily cash collections, revenue schedule from Chebut Tea Factory, County Revenue Fund account, and contract agreement between the County Government of Nandi and Chebut Tea Factory signed on 2 February 2018 and Kaimosi ATC revealed several secret deals which have all led to a loss in revenue.
According to the contract, Section 4.1 of the contract agreement states that it is the farmer who should sign an agreement with tea pluckers and not the agency and that the rates being offered by Chebut Tea firm are being decided by its directors and not according to the prevailing market rates which may lead to losing of funds. It has also been discovered that the County has no staff to monitor the kilos being collected, therefore, the County may lose funds and further they have no records to show the kilos picked in the entire financial year which may lead to loss of funds.
Governor Sang is said to be involved in his 2027 succession politics at the expense of service delivery. According to a section of the MCAs, the governor is fighting for Nandi Women Rep Cynthia Muge to succeed him while most of the MCAs are for Senator Samson Cherargei.
