Kisumu county first lady Dorothy Nyong’o recently made headlines when she cruised around the city in Sh19 million fuel guzzler vehicle whose purchase is still under investigations.
Voters and a section of officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission were left dumbfounded when the woman who appears to be in full control of county operations, in a show of flamboyance has been using the Toyota Landcruiser V8 in running both office and personal errands.
Nyong’o
What is not known to many is the fact that since Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o assumed office after toppling Jack Ranguma in 2017 elections, it is the wife that has been running the show while Nyong’o himself turned into a globetrotter who is ever out of the country .
The wife has capitalised on the governor’s illhealth to establish herself as defacto governor and powerful county first lady. Infact, the governor who cannot cough infront of the wife is now a lame duck in running county affairs.
Dorothy, a scholar who doubles as the managing director of the African Cancer Foundation has put focus on Kisumu county operations overshadowing the husband, a move that has led to disaster after disaster as voters loudly wondered who bewitched Nyong’o who was touted as a great masterplanner when he took over power.
Her political gimmicks saw the governor abandon friends like Senator Fred Outa, ex-chief of staff Patrick Ouya and former speaker Onyango Oloo. The governor was close to the trio and helped him win the seat.Dorothy also has no time for former deputy governor Ruth Odinga, sister of ODM leader Raila Odinga whom she claims hangs on her brothers coat tail to survive and currently is a junior at the county she served as deputy governor.
Ouya
Regional EACC attributed the act to unlawfully sneak the car from the yard as part of intimidations and setbacks affecting their operations when dealing with corrupt governors from Nyanza region.
As the EACC officers lamented over the controversial release of the car, Dorothy was busy using the state- of-the-art vehicle when she arrived in style at the Acacia Premier Hotel for the launch of the cancer registry.
Claims are rife that the cancer foundation where she works as the managing director may have budgeted for hiring the same vehicle to their boss, and it is not clear who was the receipt of the cash if in any case there was such a budget.
Previously she had preferred the same vehicle when inspected various projects at the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Ground as well as the newly refurbished social centre.
Outa
The EACC handling regional corruption cases seems to be helpless and their hands are literally tied going by these sad experiences.
Narrating the kind of headache they are faced with, Aura Chibole, the EACC’s Nyanza region boss said they were not aware the vehicle had left the yard adding that the action was just a highlight of a barrage of challenges they are dealing with in the area.
Inside sources detailed that Governor Nyong’o has for a long time been at crossroads on how to deal with menace created by the wife who took advantage of his frequent absence and loyalty to fully infiltrate the county operations.
Other sources told Weekly Citizen that Nyong’o has been under sustained pressure to rein in on the wife, who has opted to work with some electric dealmakers and has replaced the deputy governor Mathews Owili as the governor’s assistant.
Ruth Odinga
Dorothy managed to build her own parallel team of associates mostly business people known to be influencing the procurement process, the awarding of contracts and tenders as well as making key appointment of personal in the county board, the assembly and the city at large.
Notably she bulldozed the employment of new executive committee member for health Judith Attyang who took over from Rosemary Obara. She accused Obara of being unable to control her sexual lust and pants dating monied tycoon inn town.
Attyang by profession is an educationist but following her personal relationship with Dorothy, the university lecturer secured the health docket, ostensibly for easy facilitation of deals including power to influence the goings-on at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Referal Hospital.
Instructively, health services in Kisumu have gone to the dogs under her and currently calls are coming from all over for the sensitive ministry to be reverted to the national government.
Dorothy was left devastated after her other crony Nerry Achar was forcibly moved from the finance docket to the Energy and Industrialisation but after causing a trail of havoc while working in conspiracy with the first lady.
He was replaced by George Okong’o who previously headed the special delivery unit.
Oloo
During his heyday at the lucrative docket, it was party after party for Achar and Dorothy and in most cases he would receive policy directions from Governor Nyongo for implementation only to make an about-turn to inform the first lady who then made adjustments or reversed them at her will.
Dorothy is not new to controversy and her name once featured in the Geolife Neo Dynamite network marketing chain in the late 1990s when many Kenyans invested hard earned money to venture into the scheme only to lose their money.
Privy sources opine that she is a replica of the Kenyan first lady the late Lucy Kibaki who became famous for bullying her husband ex-president Mwai Kibaki both in private and in public apart from publicly going bonkers in many occasions.
Though unlike Lucy Kibaki, Dorothy is always at pain to maintain her cool in public but disastrous behind the scenes.
