Governor Sang sends home 3 county executives accused of graft

Nandi Governor Stephen Sang. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Nandi Governor Stephen Sang has succumbed to pressure sacking three county executives who had been accused of misappropriating money and engaging in corrupt practices.

Pressure has been piling on the county boss to kick out the trio, Valentine Chumo (Education), Hillary Koech (Transport and Infrastructure) and Stanley Baliach (Lands).

They had earlier been suspended after a report by the county assembly demanded that they step aside following an investigation into how county funds had been used in various projects.

CHANGES

The governor on Tuesday subsequently nominated Mr Drice Rono for the Transport docket, Mr Philemon Bureti (Lands) and Ms Grace Sugut (Education). They would have to be vetted by the assembly before they are formally appointed to the positions.

“I made a pledge to ensure accountability, efficiency and improved service delivery to the people of Nandi County. To achieve this, there is a need to continuously re-examine and assess performance output by county officers and departments,” said the governor.

He added that investigations had necessitated the changes promising to ensure prudent use of county resources.

“We initiated investigations into the alleged losses within the departments of Education and that of Transport and Infrastructure in order to audit the systems efficiency among others. The findings of the audit indicated leadership and management lapses leading to underperformance by the said departments,” said the governor.

The area MPs and MCAs have been pushing the governor to make the changes saying his administration was becoming synonymous with corruption.

Mr Chumo, who was earlier impeached by the county assembly but challenged the decision in court, was accused of overseeing loss of money allocated for the construction of Early Childhood Education Centres. MPs have always complained of failure to build any centres in their areas despite millions of shillings being allocated for them.

Mr Koech faced accusations around the loss of money for construction of roads and recent theft of hundreds of tyres for county trucks.

Mr Baliach was accused of inefficiency in running the crucial Lands docket.