Have you ever seen those protest by Elgeyo Marakwet parents who stage protests over poor results examinations? They are bare foot with dry skin and dry lips fighting for a better education for their children. One even wonders how children will benefit from better teachers if the classroom is the shade of a tree and the children mix with goats in class.
However , the problem of the county has been created by a workforce that according to uhuru Kenyatta, it spends 600 million to monitor Ksh 200m.
While addressing governors during the 6th devolution conference held in Kirinyaga county, President uhuru spoke about two counties whose expenditure had balloned and in specific talked about one which was spending up nearly Sh600 million to oversee Sh800 million.
Does that make sense? the president posed?
It has now emerged that the county in uhuru watch list is non other than Elgeyo Marakwet.
The county’s governor Alex Tolgos has now even proposed a reduction of the county assembly allocation. But with two year to go, how much have they lost in mismanagement?
Mr Tolgos said in a statement that it was imprudent and wasteful for the assembly to spend a huge amount of money on oversight while development projects are on the verge of stalling.
Currently the county is facing major setback from the construction of Sh63 billion multi-purpose dams which are yet to begin after it was allegedly confirmed through a letter to President Uhuru that the Italian contractor was incapable of completing the project.
In a statement , Governor Tolgos said, “The county Executive has already begun (fixing the budget discrepancy) by proposing the reduction of the County Assembly allocation by Sh120 million in the 2019-20 County Fiscal Strategy Paper (CFSP) already submitted to the Assembly.”
He added: “There is no doubt that oversight is very important in the success of governance all over the world. [But] equally important are project implementation and service delivery operational costs.”
The governor recently complained that the county was broke due to inadequate funding from the national Treasury to smaller counties. This, he said, resulted from unfair allocation to smaller counties by the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA).
He vowed to lobby for more funds through CRA and the Senate.
Why would Elgeyo Marakwet children not sit under thickets to study if Ksh 600 million can be used to oversee Ksh 800m?