The corporation spent Ksh.175, 000 on media breakfast and publicity. According to the budget, the corporation hosted 50 media personalities for breakfast and each spent Ksh.3, 500 on breakfast! One wonders which hotel in Kisumu charges Ksh.3, 500 per person for breakfast
Kisumu City successfully hosted the 9th Africities Summit between the 17th and 21st of May 2022. However, it has come to the attention of some haw-eyed residents of Kisumu that there were serious financial anomalies that have since been detected especially on how the organizers of the event, the Africities Secretariat and the Lakefront Development Corporation spent millions of shillings.
The Kisumu County Government through Africities Secretariat and Lakefront Development Corporation spent monies which could have been saved to improve service delivery to the people of Kisumu. Investigations by The weekly Vision reveal that the organizers spent millions of shillings of taxpayers’ money which could have been put to good use to benefit the people of Kisumu.
According to the corporation’s budget seen by The Weekly Vision, the board did not adhere to procurement rules when giving out tenders to various suppliers and in some instances inflated the cost of goods and services supplied. According to the budget, the corporation spent Ksh.500, 000 on a simple Website Design, Hosting, Email Hosting, and Social Media. There are also questions about how the companies were hired and if the process was competitive or not. Investigations however reveal that the firms were hand-picked against the procurement laws.
The corporation also spent Ksh.175, 000 on media breakfast and publicity. According to the budget, the corporation hosted 50 media personalities for breakfast and each spent Ksh.3, 500 on breakfast! One wonders which hotel in Kisumu charges Ksh.3, 500 per person for breakfast.
Further Ksh.240, 000 taxpayers’ money was paid to National Environmental Authority (NEMA) for 6 days @ Ksh.40, 000 per day. The big question is why the corporation didn’t apply for a 100% waiver from NEMA to consider, records are readily available that NEMA had in the past waived for such international events.
Still, on the waiver issue, the corporation also spent Ksh.300, 000 paid to the county government of Kisumu for the license. It is again not clear why the corporation did not request the host governor to waive the license fee for the event. The corporation paid Ksh.40, 000 per day for 6 days to the county government of Kisumu. It is not even known if the money was indeed paid to the county government or ended up in some individuals’ pockets.
The corporation also spent Ksh. 750,000 to hire 5 tents for 6 days and another Ksh. 1.8m to hire three venues for 6 days. All these figures were exaggerated and had the corporation followed the procurement laws, so much money could have been saved and used in more serious matters.
Further, the corporation also spent Ksh. 2m for hire of security services and equipment. How were the security services procured? Which firm won the tender to provide security services? How many security guards were deployed to offer security services? It is believed that the Ksh. 2m was exaggerated and further investigations need to be conducted.
