Governor Kihika and Senator Keroche clash during Senate Committee meeting

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The fierce rivalry between Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika and Nakuru Senator Tabitha Keroche played out during the Senate County Public Accounts Committee meeting held at Parliament buildings.

Governor Kihika had appeared before the Committee Chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang to respond to audit queries raised in the Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2024/2025.

Senator Kajwang was forced to intervene at several instances as Kihika and Keroche accused each other over various issues and in some instances using unparliamentary language against each other forcing them to be asked to apologise and withdraw their comments.

The closure of Nakuru War Memorial Hospital ignited emotions among the two leaders with the Senator accusing the Governor for lying over the matter while Kihika accused Keroche for holding brief for criminals forcing Kajwang to intervene and calling the two leaders to order.

“I would like to inform Governor Kihika and Senator Keroche that this is my meeting, I am asking them to withdraw the unparliamentary language they have used against each other so that we can proceed to address the substantive matters that have brought us here today,” said Kajwang.

The Governor told Senators that there is an active case in court over the War Memorial Hospital matter and she could not delve into details with Kajwang asking her to explain the status of the lease of which Kihika said that there was no lease with the defendants coming up with a fraudulent lease.

Kihika said the Court matter on War Memorial Hospital is soon coming to an end and that the residents of Nakuru have two other health facilities nearby after Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna raised concern that the area residents might be missing out on essential health service due to the wrangles.

Kajwang said that it was not fair for the Governor to say that the county is not in hurry to open the health facility after Kihika said that the defendants were not willing to run the health facility using a joint committee with the county government as directed by the court.

Keroche said that the War Memorial Hospital has got a genuine lease and 10 court orders to be reopened accusing the county government for frustrating the joint committee to implement what has been ordered by the court in order to ensure the facility is running.

“The people of Nakuru want the War Memorial Hospital reopened since the neighbouring facilities are congested with three patients sharing a bed which was unreasonable, the reason as to why the Governor seems agitated over this matter is because she is lying to the committee,” said Keroche.

The Nakuru Senator told the committee that currently there is some demolition of buildings that is being conducted by the county at the health facility wondering what was the motive of the demolition and those doing it whether they were aware they were engaging in a criminal act.

Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo said that the matter raised by the Auditor General is about the value of the land of the health facility and that even if the land was allocated by the National Government it was now under the management of the county and it was about the value of money.

Kihika said that her administration did what it could about ensuring the facility is run as required saying that the defendants have frustrated the reopening of the facility under the joint committee since they want to run it on their own disputing Keroche’s position on the matter.

The Governor was also taken to task over the increase of pending bills by Sh5 billion in one year up from Sh1.4 billion to Sh6.4 billion with Senators seeking to know why there was this increase in a span of one year after the Auditor General raised concerns over the outstanding debts.

"The bigger question is how you close the year with a debt of Sh5 billion with an increase from Sh1.4 billion to Sh6.4 billion from the previous year, which is four times more, what were the circumstances, what is the plan that the county to ensure that this debt is cleared,” asked Kajwang.

Kihika said that her administration has put measures in place to ensure that all the pending bills were cleared and that they were checking out to ensure that priority was given to those who had stayed for long and that it was not the intention of her administration not to clear the debts owed.

Keroche sought to know why it has taken Kihika more than 13 years to transfer vehicle ownership from the defunct local authorities to county administration with the Governor saying this matter was being handled by the Inter-Governmental Relations Transition Committee(IGRTC).

The Governor said that it was entirely not the fault of her administration and that this was inherited from the defunct local authorities and that they were doing everything possible to ensure that this issue was resolved soonest.