By Lawrence Aluru, Rushdie Oudia and Naftal Makori
Kisumu, Kenya: More than 50 County Representatives from Nyanza will not attend President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta’s swearing-in ceremony over claims that they were being looked down upon by the central government.
The politicians from Kisumu, Siaya and Nyamira counties, who were to leave their respective counties on Monday opted to stay behind in protest, and to follow the ceremony on their television sets.
In Siaya County, the politicians said they were not going for the ceremony because of poor transport arrangements.
The deputy county Speaker Stephen Kadera said that the entire 30 ward representatives will not travel to Nairobi because the organizers wanted them to travel at night.
Kadera said that it was tiresome for them to travel at night and attend the function immediately they alight from the vehicle.
“We cannot travel at night at the same time we are expected to be seated at Kasarani by 8am immediately we arrive in Nairobi,” he said.
West Ugenya ward representative who was speaking to The Standard on phone said that they were neither given invitation cards.
“The organizers for the trip are not treating us with the respect we deserve as county representatives, we should not be taken for a ride for this particular function,” Kadera said.
He said that for people of their caliber, there should have been given a proper direction on what will take place.
The office of the county commissioner is charged with the responsibility of arranging for the trip that will take all the 30 members of the assembly and senior residents of the entire county.
We could not reach the county commissioner at the time of going to press as his phone busy and could not be reached.
He said that they recognize the President-elect as their leader but reiterated that those behind plans have caused confusion.
“This does not mean that we don’t respect the president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenya’s fourth president but the way things are done has discouraged us,” added Kadera.
Accommodation
In Kisumu County, 35 county representatives flocked the Provincial Commissioner’s Office where they declined to take Sh5,000 that was meant to cater for their accommodation and meals expenses in Nairobi.
Two school buses parked outside the Provincial Headquarters Building left at midday with only a handful of the District Peace Committee officials, as the politicians drove away in their flashy cars.
The leaders also declined to take invitation cards sent to them by Kisumu County Commissioner Lorna Odero who had made transport allocations for 134 delegates.
Among the reasons for their decline was that the communication to any of them should have come either from the Speaker of the County Assembly Ann Adul or the governor and not the county commissioner.
