Councillors quit CDF team, accuse MP of cash misuse

By peter atsiaya

Kisumu Town East Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) has been hit by a crisis following the resignation of two councillors due to alleged misuse of funds.

Councillors Jacktone Onunga and Eric Oricho resigned as committee members bringing the number to three officials who have quit their positions from the kitty.

The fund’s secretary Ogweny Aduka resigned over similar allegations.

The officials accused area MP Shakeel Shabir of undermining other officials and spending money from the kitty without approval from committee members.

"The MP has been using us like rubber stamps. We are not given time to give our views on implementation of projects during meetings," said Onunga.

"For example, he claims to have spent Sh300,000 to put up sheds at Kondele without our approval," he claimed.

But Shabir said he had replaced the two civic leaders.

"The councillors did not resign but they decided to skip meetings and I was forced to replace them," Shabir told the Press at the CDF office yesterday.

The MP noted that allegations by the councillors were not true, adding there was no crisis at the kitty’s management.

Onunga said they were not happy with Shabir’s decision to allow his wife Nancy, who is the constituency manager, to sit in CDF meetings.

They alleged Shabir had irregularly put his cronies on CDF management to spy on members opposed to the way he was running the kitty.