Trouble
is brewing between the Kisumu county and members of the business community
operating in the lakeside town.
The
traders are blaming the governor Jack Ranguma for poor management of Kisumu
city affairs, which include poor collection of garbage, lack of streetlights
and spiralling insecurity,
Residents
are also blaming the governor and his team of executive officers for failure to
stamp out rampant graft among the county MCAs and members of staff. There are
unconfirmed claims that even the most lowly placed clerks and office
secretaries have registered their own companies either through their husbands,
proxies and relatives or friends for the purpose of grabbing all the county’s
lucrative tenders for supplies of the various items to the chagrins of genuine
businessmen and traders who now claim they are shielded off.
Other
complaints leveled against the governor include lack of properly demarcated
roads signs, which now leads to motorists to drive their vehicles in town
aimlessly without observing bus stops, zebra crossings and lack of traffic
lights on major roads and junctions. The matatus plying Busia and Bondo
roads from the town centre have established their own bus terminal on the busy Aga Khan Drive, hence obstructing other
motorists in the absence of proper government reinforcement of the traffic
regulations and rules.
The
road opposite Kisumu Boys High School and the Aga Khan Drive near the Aga Khan
Hospital has been turned into illegal bus terminal causing serious traffic hiccups in the area.
The
town’s cleaning troupe are no longer seen on the streets and the county is now
relying on hired street urchins popularly known as ninja as casual workers
which has left many parts of the town and central business district
stinking. The county government has also
failed to secure a proper dumpsite for the disposals of the refuse emanating
from the town, exposing residents and visitors to serious health hazard.
Residents
now want the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to send its investigation
officers to the county to investigate claims that MCAs are among those winning
lucrative tenders for supplies of various items to the county government.
A
cross section of the business community scathingly criticised Governor Ranguma
for his recent comments and remarks about the possibility of his government
repossessing land and plots allocated to
stalled projects such as Kicomi and the adjacent disused Kenya Breweries plant
in town.
The
business community has appealed to Ranguma to abandon his approach to property
and cited government projects that have stalled such as the Miwani Sugar Mills
and the Rice Mill in Kibos. The governor and his team should look for ways and
means of resuscitating these projects instead of issuing threats to scare away
prospective investors, they said.
The
business community is also concerned that Ranguma has recently issued threats
on plans to repossess land and plots used as crematory by the Hindu community
and a cemetery for the Ismailia and Muslim communities in town.
The
criticism on Ranguma comes in the wake of a recent visit to town by the
parliamentary select committee on finance and trade led by its chairman,
Benjamin Lang’at, the MP for Ainamoi. The team was accompanied by the
principal secretary for Industrialisation and Enterprises Development Wilson
Songa.
Kicomi,
which hitherto was the largest employer of close to 2,600 workers in town, went
burst in 1990s and Price Waterhouse was appointed its receiver manager before
it was auctioned and sold to private entrepreneurs.
The
new owners of the facility later made frantic efforts to have it revived, but
owing to the government liberalisation of the textile industry and massive
imports of “mitumba” fibres, these efforts were thwarted.
And
so were the high cost of power, fuel, land and labour. The perennial shortage
of locally grown cotton was the other prohibitive reasons. Kicomi used to
produce one million metres of fabric per month for local and export market.
The
parliamentary committee also visited Kicomi and inspected its multi-million
shillings machinery which is lying idle inside its buildings and promised to do
something towards its revival.
Kisumu
residents have told the governor that he
risks being impeached if he and his team does not pull up their socks and see
to it that services are delivered to the taxpayers.
No comments:
Post a Comment