By Kabaraji Richard
A section of Civil Societies in Trans Nzoia has raised a red flag over plans by MCAs to impeach some of the top county officials.
Under the umbrella of Uraia Led Budget Champions Initiative, the organizations have cautioned the MCAs over the motive behind the impeachment.
In a media briefing in Kitale town, the lobby group led by Justice and Peace Director Leonard Barasa wondered why the MCAs had picked Trade and Roads County Executives leaving out the heavily funded Health and Agriculture dockets.

“We are not against the move by the MCAs to perform their oversight duties but we’re wondering why are they going for the two ministries and leaving the others,” Barasa said.
Fight over tenders
The Civil Society group now claim the MCAs are after lucrative tenders in the targeted departments.
They argue that the impeachment against Trade and Roads CECMs has nothing to do with the interests of the citizens.
“They want to arm-twist the governor so that he deviates from the guidelines he had put on tendering process. All the MCAs want is to take over the process and ask for the ten percent kick back,” said one of the lobby group officials.
Earlier this week, a motion was moved at the Trans Nzoia County Assembly seeking for the removal of four CECMs.
The motion was moved by Bidii MCA James Kangi.
Governor George Natembeya on Friday announced a reshuffle of his cabinet – in what has been seen as a response to the impeachment plans.
All the CECMs targeted for impeachment were moved to new dockets.
Gaps in revenue collection department
Meanwhile, the Civil Societies have expressed concerns over massive gaps in the management of the Trans Nzoia finances.
They claim the county’s revenue collection has witnessed corruption within the last 10 years.
Bishop Esther Mwibale, a member of the lobby groups said the county has no streamlined way of revenue collection thus loosing most of the funds collected to the pockets of a few individuals.

According to Bishop Mwibale, three-quarters of the revenue collected daily goes to the individual’s pockets.
“There are cases where the tax agents came with two receipt books. The give out fake receipts or even worse do not give any documentation thus making the county lose its revenue,” she said.
Her sentiments were echoed by Dominic Okoth who said that the Revenue Department was marred with massive corruption to a point where workers shared one account for payment.
“We found out six workers who shared one payment account making us wonder if the county followed any PFM act,” Okoth said.
The lobby has now asked the current regime to come up with measures to seal off the loopholes which they say might affect the county ranking.
“We want this county to be removed from the qualified grade in auditing to unqualified as we are being ranked last in revenue collection,” noted George Okinyi, a member of the budget champions lobby group.