By Team
Members of County Assembly (MCAs) of Homa Bay could be dancing on their political own graves and may be readying themselves for voters backlash over multimillion water based development projects.
With only four days to the new financial year, the MCAs are staring at the reality of failure to have actualized the ward based projects and will have a date with the electorates over unfilled promises in 2027 general elections.
With campaigns for 2027 general elections starting to gain momentum, the MCAs will be hard pressed to explain why they failed to implement the projects despite the budgetary allocations.
According to the report by the Assembly Ward Projects Committee on the status of ward projects for the FY 2024/2024 leaves the MCAs exposed over failure to implement the projects as was stipulated in the budget.
In the report the department of Roads, Public Works , Transport and infrastructure was allocated Sh 400M for the implementation of ward projects across the county which translated into Sh 10M per ward.
The department reported that the road inventory and condition survey exercise had been completed and the final report compiled and that the cabinet approved all the projects and were at the tender document preparation.
The committee observed that all the projects were awaiting the preparation of tender documents, therefore there was no project status report.
In the health department, it was allocated Sh 120M for the implementation of ward projects across the county with each ward having a budgetary allocation of Sh 3M.
The department reported that 33 projects have been awarded, three were not responsive , four were completed , one document not returned and two facilities to be supplied with assorted medical equipment.
The committee observed that six projects were completed , 20 projects are yet to be started , 10 projects were work in progress, three projects were not responsive, and two facilities were waiting supply and delivery of assorted medical equipment.
In the Youths, Sports, Gender inclusivity , cultural heritage and social services was allocated Sh 40M for the ward projects for upgrading of the 40 play fields.
The department listed 40 playgrounds to be upgraded and that no project had been tendered for and no work has commenced.
The Committee found that there was no tendering done and so there was no project status report by the department.
The committee general findings revealed late commencement of procurement processes for the implementation of most ward projects leading to failure to actualize them.
Some projects had been completed and others were work in progress as was reported by the department of health and medical services. This was in tandem with the Article 43 of the constitution of Kenya, 2010.
There was work in progress in implementation of ward projects by the department of health and medical services as a considerable number of projects about to be completed .
Other departments such as Roads , Transport , Public Works and Infrastructure, and Youth , Sports , Gender Inclusivity, Cultural Heritage and Social Services gave no report on status of project implementation .
This was occasioned by sluggish procurement process which is contrary to the dictates of Article 56 and Article 174 of the constitution of Kenya, 2010
But in her response , Governor Gladys Wanga said the roads projects have been advertised.
“Upgrade is labor based so there is no advertisement is needed. It similarly to ondoa Kaunda we undertook for ECDE classroom constructions,” she said.
A community based organization, Interface community help desk has written to the clerk and the speaker demanding explanation over the expenditure of the funds.
Chairperson Mr. Evans Gor also demanded to know how Sh 40m allocation for the ward office fencing was utilized.
