Councillors' tour to US called off on claims of using council cash

By GEORGE OLWENYA

A trip to the US by seven councillors from Siaya Municipal Council has been cancelled after a disagreement.

Town Clerk Dominic Akugo told The Standard the trip was cancelled due to bad politics by some councillors.

"There were claims by some councillors that we would use council finances to fund the trip," he said.

The tour was said to be sponsored by the Ford Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, but some civic leaders opposed to it claimed there were plans to partly fund it from council funds.

The controversial tour had been sanctioned by Local Government PS amid protests from some civic leaders.

Those who were to travel were four councillors, the clerk and two non-staff members. One of the civic leaders was allegedly to travel with his wife disguised as the revenue officer.

A Kenyan in the US said to have organised the tour was claimed to have requested that his younger brother be included in the trip.

Siaya deputy mayor Maurice Orondo confirmed that he was among the civic leaders who had written to the Ministry of Local Government to sanction the US tour before they received clearance from the PS.

The tour was called off after nominated councillor Oloo Okanda, who is also the public officer in the municipality, last month wrote a protest letter to the PS and copied it to the Nyanza Provincial Local Government Officer questioning the financial implications the trip would pile on the council.

Bank loans

Mr Okanda on Tuesday said he was concerned that the trip would cost the council millions of shillings yet employees have not been paid salaries for the last four months.

He disclosed that the council last year took a loan of Sh20 million from a local bank to support its operations and a further Sh10 million towards the end of the year that is yet to be cleared.

"The council has been operating on bank loans and it will be foolhardy that when LATF comes we use it to send councillors on a tour to the US," argued Okanda.

Okanda said the letter sanctioning the trip indicated that the Ford Foundation would partly fund the trip while the council would take care of the allowances for the two weeks the group would spend in the US.