MCAs thwart plan to build governor official residence

The county assembly has thwarted plans to build official residences for the governor and speaker.

This means Governor Alex Tolgos and Speaker Philemon Sabulei will continue living in Eldoret town, some 30km away, and commute to work daily in Iten town.

In 2015, residents moved to court and rejected plans to build a Sh50 million home for the governor in Kamariny.

They claimed the land was reserved for expansion of Kamariny Stadium that was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1954.

Already, over Sh6 million has been pumped into the project that has now stalled.

The Budget and Appropriation Committee had proposed to allocate Sh100 million to build the residences but MCAs re-allocated the funds to development.

“The governor himself had asked we re-allocate the funds to other development vote to solve pertinent issues affecting the wards and we saw sense in that and consequently distributed the monies across the 20 wards in the county,” said Chepkorio MCA William Kiplagat.

But Deputy Speaker Christopher Chemosong said the money for building the two mansions would be allocated in the 2019-20 financial year.

“The assembly still needs time to conduct sufficient public participation and consultation (to) enable us to allocate funds and ensure our leaders spend their nights at the county,” he said.

Cut costs

The county chief and his team use Sh50 million annually on fuel while commuting.

“We agreed to construct the residences for the governor and speaker to cut costs on daily movement to Eldoret and back to Iten in the morning where the governor and CECs reside,” said Mr Chemosong.

He noted that if residents block construction of the governor’s house at initial Kamariny, they will have to seek for alternative land.

But in Uasin Gishu, the assembly allocated Sh100 million for construction of homes for Governor Jackson Mandago and his deputy Daniel Chemno.

Finance and Economic Planning Executive Julius Ruto while reading the county budget of Sh8.4 billion said the land had had been identified.

“As a county we have several parcels of land and our designers are already mapping out an ideal location for the construction of the mansion,” said Mr Ruto.