A human rights activist in Uasin Gishu County has expressed concerns over what he describes as a dangerous dimension that corruption in counties has taken.
Kipkorir Ng’etich, the director of Eldoret-based Center for Human Rights and Democracy (CHRD) claims operations of most counties are now being managed by cartels.
In an interview with Uasin Gishu News on Monday, February 5, 2024, Ng’etich appealed to President William Ruto to reign in on the matter, especially for governors elected on a Kenya Kwanza ticket.
“We want to humbly request his EXELLENCY the president to dealt firmly with corruption at the County government that has taken a dangerous dimension where now the operations of the county government are managed by cartels,” the activist said.
“The president should deal firmly especially with governors elected on the ruling party ticket who instead of delivering service to the wananchi at the grassroots level they are now busy looting public resources through miss management/ financial maltpractise through corrupt tendering process and kick backs,” he added.
Presidential assessment team
The CHRD director argues that being elected under the ruling party, the county bosses should be helping the president to deliver services at the grassroots level and maintain the good image of the government.
He now wants the Head of State to urgently establish presidential assessment team to move with speed to assess the performance of the country governments.
“It is shocking that cartels have taken hostage service delivery in the county governments where they busy looting/reating unfounded payments claims and using county resources as their own family properties,” Ng’etich said.
In addition, he pointed out that the corruption index at the County governments was worrying hence “something must be done urgently”.
A majority of the 47 governors were elected on parties affiliated to the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition.
The human rights and democracy activist also expressed his firm support for the president’s declaration of war on graft and land grabbers.
