Leaders in bid to heal region

• Councillors accuse two MPs of trying to sabotage their unity efforts by trying to revive Gema politics.
• Smooth election characterised by equitable distribution of various posts.

Civic leaders from the Nakuru county council have resolved to spearhead reconciliation in the region following the ethnic animosities during the post-election violence.

The 68 councillors demonstrated their newly found harmony on Tuesday by voting peacefully for chairmen of various committees, characterised by ethnic and gender balance.

The last time they met in April to try and set up such committees there was chaos after a faction of ODM and their PNU counterparts failed to agree on modalities of the election.

Some of the councillors from Molo constituency were censured for sitting on the fence in the quest for peaceful coexistence among internal refugees and hosting communities following the January chaos.

Smooth election

They, however, accused two MPs from Molo and Nakuru North districts of trying to sabotage their efforts by trying to revive divisive ideologies of Gema (Gikuyu-Embu-Meru Association) politics.

Former county council chairman Joshua Cheruiyot, Cllrs Philip Kamau, Kiriethe Ndigirigi mobilised their counterparts in strategising a smooth election through an equitable distribution of the various posts.

In Muranga county council, Chairman Kennedy Wanjohi urged councillors and employees to work together to help the local authority overcome the financial constraints it is facing.
Speaking after his election, Mr Wanjohi said the council had a lot of incomplete projects besides other financial challenges.

Challenges

Among the challenges were allowances for the councillors that increased from Sh7,167,500 to Sh12,794,400 after the number of councillors rose from 20 to 29 during the last General Election.

A teacher recruitment exercise in Isiolo and Garbatulla districts has been described as a sham.

Twenty-two civic leaders from Isiolo county council said the majority of those chosen last week were not locals.

They said the circular from the Education ministry that preceded the recruitment did not consider the welfare of people from arid and semi-arid regions.

Chairman Adan Ali said despite the two districts having hundreds of unemployed primary school teachers, the majority of those recruited last week came from other parts of the country.

Stories by Simon Siele, Waikwa Maina and Oscar King’ori