Residents oppose move by governor to relocate office

Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa. [Nathan Ochunge, Standard]

Residents have raised concerns over the move by Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa to relocate his office to Lugari sub-county from Kakamega town.

Lugari is about 80km from Kakamega.

The relocation is meant to pave way for refurbishment of the governor's office at the county headquarters.

However, Kakamega residents have raised concerns, arguing that the governor wants to renovate an office that is in a good state.

They instead want the money for the refurbishment to be used to build the Sh500 million county headquarters in Mudiri Estate on the outskirts of Kakamega town.

The County Assembly of Kakamega approved the construction of the new county headquarters and appropriated Sh500 million towards its construction, nine months ago.

“This is a waste of taxpayers' money, and such a move is ill-advised. You cannot refurbish an office that is already in a good state," said Ali Omar, a Kakamega resident.

He added: “During public participation, we endorsed a proposal by the governor for the construction of the county headquarters because we saw the project was to ensure services are centralised, but it is now almost a year, and the project has not started. Now the governor is telling us that he will be working from Lugari."

According to an internal memo seen by The Standard, Barasa will from today start operating from his regional office located in Pan Paper.

Kakamega County Secretary Lawrence Omuhaka authored the memo dated November 1, this year.

“Barasa will fully take up his duties at the Lugari office, increasing access to services to the residents of the Northern part of Kakamega and the administrative decision by the governor makes the Northern Office officially functional to have the satellite office operationalised,” the memo reads in part.

Barasa's deputy Ayub Savula will operate from Kakamega town.

A close ally of the governor told The Standard that Barasa intends to operate from Lugari for the next two or three months.

When reached for comment, Mr Omuhaka clarified that service delivery will not be disrupted by the temporary relocation of the governor's office.

He said that 'people should not read much', adding that the move is aimed at bringing services closer to the people.

“We have regional offices across the county and the governor has been operating from those offices before, same as to what the Head of State usually does,” said Omuhaka.

Omuhaka did not respond to questions about the county headquarters.