Uhuru tour: Matiang’i, Senator blamed for Uhuru meeting

Nyamira County leaders have accused a cabinet secretary of sidelining them during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tour of the region on Monday.

They blamed Information Cabinet Secretary Dr Matiang’i of not involving them in the arrangement of the visit.

Members of the County Assembly, including the Leader of the Majority Mr Beauttah Omanga (Bogichora), Mr Samwel Nyanchama (Itibo), Mr Julius Marita (nominated), Ms Wilkister Onsando (nominated) and Ms Zipporah Osoro (nominated) said they were not recognised and felt humiliated during the President’s meeting claiming that  Dr Matiang’i was behind it.

They also criticised Nyamira leaders who failed to attend the meeting saying they gave their Kisii counterparts a leeway to get goodies from President Kenyatta.

Mrs Osando said due to non-involvement of county officials in the arrangement of the visit, most of the MCAs failed to get a place to sit.

Mr Omanga who moved a motion to debate the President’s visit said it was a shame for Senator Mongare Okong’o to snub the function just because the Head of State belonged to the rival Jubilee coalition.

MISPLACED PRIORITIES

“Kisii Senator Chris Obure is more ODM than Senator Okong’o yet he attended the meeting in Kisii and spoke. Our leaders who boycotted the function got their priorities wrong,” Mr Omanga said.

Mr Marita said unlike in Kisii where the President allocated funds to several projects that would be implemented by the national government, Mr Kenyatta could “only give empty promises to the residents of Nyamira”.

Mr James Mating’a (Kemera) said there was need for the Assembly to stamp its authority on the way the county government discharged it mandate. He demanded that the Senator’s seat in the assembly be removed.

Contacted, Mr Okong’o said he and other ODM leaders who skipped the meeting had not been involved in its planning.

The Assembly members resolved that the county governor, senator and area four MPs organize a joint meeting with them and iron out their differences, which they noted, if allowed to continue will not augur well to the region’s development.

A member of Nyamira County Assembly nearly lost his seat when he declared from the floor of the house that he had decamped ODM for TNA as he contributed on the President’s tour in the region.

Mr Robert Apiemi Ongwano said he was disappointed by the decision Cord MPs, Charles Geni (North Mugirango), Timothy Bosire (Kitutu Masaba), Nyamira senator Ken Mong’are Okong’o and County Woman Rep Alice Chae took to snub President Kenyatta’s tour in the county on Monday.

“I am not happy with the decision taken by my Cord leaders and I have therefore moved from ODM to TNA,” he said to the chagrins of other Assembly members and Speaker Joash Nyamache Nyamoko who said his pronouncement could cost him the Assembly seat.

Asked by the speaker whether he knew that his defection remark could cost him the seat Mr Ongwana apologized and withdrew his statement.

The speaker then ordered that his statement be expunged from the Assembly’s Hansard since it had been retracted and had serious repercussions.

However, with equal anger, the Assembly members were not happy with the Cord leaders who skipped the president’s tour, creating room for Kisii leaders to steal the show.