Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o has apologised to the Raila Odinga family after a county advert listed his late father and brother Oburu amongst top land rate defaulters. A list published in the local dailies last week named Jaramogi Oginga and Oburu Oginga among defaulters with arrears running into millions of shillings. The list stated that Ajuma Oginga Odinga, the owner of Kisumu Bloc 12/222 owes the county Sh7,774,099 while Oburu owes Sh295,743.
Oginga’s land is marked as Kisumu Bloc 7/509. However, on Monday, Nyong’o through the Governor Press unit apologised to the family for the embarrassment caused by the publication. The county in an effort to manage ballooning land rates account on default, which had serious impacts on revenue management, commissioned an exercise to compile a list of the land rate defaulters and the actual amount in default in the county. Communication officer Aloice Ager said this has been an elaborate process that entailed reconciling the accounts resident in the various payment platform dating back to the defunct local authorities.
Some vultures were desperately laying in wait to pound on that news and make political mileage by making minced meat out of Raila,prof Nyongo,why are you closing the party so soon even before it starts.
— m khisa (@khisa14) November 26, 2018
“The reconciliation process entailed crosschecking with all relevant information including minutes from sessions by the full councils of those defunct authorities, the decision by the then state Department of Local authority and the county cabinet,” he said. He noted that the final document of this exercise, unfortunately, had not been processed through the county cabinet for final action.
“It is, therefore, unfortunate that one of the many drafts pieces was erroneously sent for publication on one of the dailies, “he said. Ager added, “It’s unfortunate that this version sent to the public is not the final document being sent to the cabinet and has caused untold embarrassment to the government.”
“The Governor Peter Anyang Nyong’o sends an unreserved apology to the family of the first vice president for the embarrassment caused by this publication and for this enormous error,” he stated. The published list had 581 defaulters comprising of companies and individuals.