State official slaps Governors on the face for stealing credits

Can you differentiate between a national government project and a County government project? Well, if their is a way through which our County bosses have been confusing us is through such projects. Th County governments have however been accused of taking credit on projects in their areas by the national government despite not funding their construction or upgrade.

Infrastructure Principal Secretary (PS) Julius Korir told the National Assembly Committee on Transport and Housing on Wednesday that the county governments had a tendency to claim responsibility for road projects done by the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) to hoodwink the public that they were working.

Julius Korir

The PS said that the county administrations took advantage of their proximity to the projects to mount huge billboards indicating that they were behind the work.

Some governors, Mr Korir said, send county graders after Kura has the left the site upon completion of the projects and then move to commission the road without the knowledge of the national government.

This leads to double allocation of millions of shillings by both Kura and county governments for the same project.

Mr Korir cited a case in Bomet County where the governor reportedly claimed to have recarpeted the town and Kapkwer-Kapsangaru roads despite the two projects having been entirely funded by the national government through Kura.

“The governor moved and commissioned the road done by Kura even without the knowledge of the national government,” Mr Korir told the committee.

“There is a problem of oversight in the county governments.”

Bomet Central MP Ronald Tonui had asked the PS whether he is aware that the county government claime it had done the projects.

Under the law, Kura is mandated to manage, develop, rehabilitate and maintainnational urban trunk roads.

Committee chairman David Pkosing (Pokot South) told Kura to brief MPs and create public awareness to deter governors from taking credit for them.

“There is a risk of double allocation of resources to the same project by both the national government and the county government to the disadvantage of the people,” Mr Pkosing said.

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