County sets aside Sh3 million for training on how to use iPads

By Nyambega Gisesa | 8yrs ago | 2 min read

Never mind that Siaya was among the counties that absorbed the least amount of money for development and had a balance of Sh402 million unused this January.

The Laikipia County government bought four German Shepherds at Sh720,000, fed at Sh100,000 a month each. They were left at the Rift Valley Dog Training Unit in Nakuru as there was no ‘fare’ to transport them to Laikipia.

Yet these dogs, meant for tracking criminals, especially cattle rustlers, were so important to the county that the Assembly had passed a supplementary budget of Sh2 million in the 2013-2014 financial year to buy them.

And after all these, county police commander Angelus Karuru told Governor John Wambugu to take his dogs wherever he wanted. Isn’t the business of tracking criminals and cattle rustlers the function of the central government? The saving grace? County officials affirm that they only spent Sh28,000 per month (not Sh100,000) feeding each dog - which is almost three times the minimum wage bill for a worker in Kenya.

So, what did MCAs think of this? Thingithu Ward MCA Michael Kinyua suggested that the county government just kills the dogs since they would continue costing the taxpayers a lot of money.

Kisumu MCAs, on the other hand, set aside Sh3 million for learning how to use iPads. Blogger Robert Alai volunteered to train them for free. Meanwhile in Nyamira, things were getting ridiculously swampy. In the 2014/2015 budget presented to their county Assembly, the Finance Executive John Omanwa set aside money to purchase boats. The Cabinet was so enthralled by the idea that they even set aside Sh725,000 for purchase and maintenance of boats and ferries. The county does not own a ferry and allocated a just Sh36,000 for maintenance of roads. Nyamira County has no large rivers or lakes to warrant the purchase and maintenance of boats and ferries.