MCAs plan to kick out two Nyong’o ministers

A fresh crisis has engulfed governor Anyang’ Nyong’o’s administration after Members of the County Assembly started the process of kicking out two county ministers.

Already, two notice of motion to impeach Finance Executive Nerry Achar and his Tourism and Sports counterpart Achie Alai have been presented before the House.

The motions have been sponsored by former Budget Committee chairperson Steve Owiti and a member of the Speaker’s Panel, Roy Samo.

The motion to decide the fates of Mr Achar and Ms Alai is expected to be debated today even as the Executive came to their defence.

County Communication Director Aloyce Ager said Prof Nyong’o was content with their performance.

“The MCAs are right to do their oversight role and we will look at their recommendations,” said Mr Ager.

The Standard has established that the current budget stalemate and failure by the county executive committee members to complete stalled projects are some of the reasons why the MCAs want them to leave office.

The Executive has been fighting to have the county assembly endorse the 2019/2020 budget proposals but ward reps have refused to play ball.

Budget document

Kajulu MCA Roy Samo claimed that Achar was responsible for coming up with the budget document that had ‘a lot of errors’.

“The major reason why we want the CECs to leave office is because they have been unable to implement the budget,” said Mr Samo.

According to Samo, Achar had failed to address the issues of stalled projects. The ward rep claimed that a majority of the projects that were budgeted for in the 2018/2019 financial year were not completed, with some lying in ruins.

He also questioned some of the allocations that were included in the budget proposal.

“We have stalled projects across the country. In my ward, alone, there are several projects. They received allocations in the past financial year but they have not been done.”

But Ager said the two members could not be faulted for the stalled projects, arguing that they could not be completed at once.

“It is just like pending bills. No government can complete pending bills of about Sh2 billion in one financial year.”

Attempts to reach Alai and Achar for comments were futile after they failed to answer telephone calls or reply to our text messages.

Another issue that is causing friction between MCAs and members of Nyong’o’s Cabinet is the ongoing renovation of footpaths in Kisumu.

The MCAs claim the Executive has used nearly Sh300 million on the street works, an amount they say has been inflated.