Barely two months after Mandera county governor Ali Roba was sued by a resident over corruption, a section of youths in the region have written to the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji demanding the arrest of the governor for nepotism in employment.
The youths accuse the governor of hiring “slay queens and his relatives at the expense of qualified people”.
They termed the county as a hotbed of corruption, noting all that lucrative positions are shared between the governor, county secretary, MCAs, 17 chief officers and CECs.
Two months ago, a Nairobi court directed Inspector General of Police to present Roba and three county officials in court.
Hassan Noor
This was after a resident, Simba Hasheem filed a criminal case under private prosecution over corruption allegations.
The other three individuals sued alongside the governor are Ibrahim Hassan, Alinoor Mohamed Ali and Okash Abdullahi Adan.
Through his advocate Mutuma Meja, the petitioner cited various occasions during which the county government has misappropriated funds and flouting the law.
Hasheem outlined an instance on May 19 2014 when the Mandera county government entered into an agreement with the Kenya Red Cross E-plus Limited for provision of ambulance services to the county.
The county government spent Sh40,171,759 for six ambulances which translated to Sh600,000 per month for every ambulance.
The move, the applicant said, was not within the confines of the law and was captured in Auditor General Edward Ouko’s report for the year ending June 30 2015.
The petitioner added that on May 23 2016 the county government again, despite caution from the procurement department purchased an armoured vehicle for the county boss at a cost of Sh16,935,000.
The price, the petitioner noted, was inflated due to the lack of competitive bidding.
The youths in the letter urged Haji to take action against the governor and “all persons found culpable for abuse of office so as to instill sanity in the operations of Mandera county government”.
“Since your office has the mandate and requisite resources to carry out further investigations and institute criminal proceedings, we urge you to take action against the governor and his accomplices,” the letter to Haji read.
The youths said the interview process “was a sham and all those who are appointed lack basic qualifications”.
“I would like to give an example of county secretary who was formerly a clerical officer with Post Bank.
“The county chief officer for energy and natural resources is a nurse who holds a certificate in nursing from Kabarnet Medical Training College.
“Mandera county needs a thorough audit of its employees. Even most junior positions are occupied by people with fake certificates,” they said.
They added that Mandawasco fund manager Mohamed Amin did not study accounting.
“Besides, he lacks the constitutional requirement of 10 years’ experience in public service. Our governor is incompetent,” they added.
The youths accused William Ruto of protecting the governor as he engages in looting the county “left, right and centre”.
They said the county boss boasts of being untouchable due to his close association with Ruto.
“To make matters worse, he is escaping accountability in the name of terror attacks. There was a time the finance office was set on fire in an explosion to scare away national auditors from doing their work. This is a diversionary tactic to escape accountability,” they added.
They called for an audit of all positions to be done so as to ascertain how many people are genuine employees.
“To make the matters even worse, all the positions have been shared among relatives of the governor. Of course we will be moving to court to challenge this employment,” they noted.
In February this year, the High Court upheld Roba’s election as Mandera governor.
Judge Fred Ochieng held that Roba was validly elected on August 8 2017 for a second term.
The judge said the elections reflected the will of the people and ordered Hassan Noor Hassan – the petitioner, to pay Sh5 million as cost.
He said although there were a few discrepancies, they were not substantial to affect the outcome.
The judge said the last scrutiny confirmed that the results were generally verifiable.
The petitioner later withdrew an appeal challenging High Court decision that upheld Roba’s election.
