Samboja’s move to dissolve county government faulted

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Taita Taveta county governor Granton Samboja .The county has sent over 1000 workers home in an effort to stem the soaring wage bill PHOTO COURTESY

A section of Civil Society Reference Groups (CSRG) have disagreed on the move by Governor Granton Samboja to dissolve the Taita Taveta  county government.

While on a two day training in Malindi, Kilifi County, the civil Society members termed the move as unconstitutional saying it did not involve the views of the locals in the county.

Led by their presiding convener, Suba Churchill,the activists said citizens were not put at the center of all the disputes between the governor and the members of county assembly .

“Citizens must be involved on the governance process, it’s clear that Governor Samboja did not consider the feelings of the local citizens in coming up with a proposal to dissolve the county,” said Suba.

“There are no views of the citizens on the issue of the budget that brought all the wrangles in the county,” he added.

“The Governor is trying to blackmail the MCAs and trying to force their hand to adopt and pass the budget,” he added.

He said that as civil society and human right defenders they don’t support the move hence calling for a better method to solve the problem.

“We are represented by three counties that is Lamu, Taita Taveta and Tana River counties, we are here to train on more skills that shall be applied in protecting the human rights that have been violated for long,” he added.

According to Peter Shambi,a Civil Society Reference member under the Hamasa organization based in Taita Taveta, the leadership has been shambolic thus some leaders are taking the opportunity to create confusion.

“There has been no proper public consultation on the budget, the serious disputes have risen because citizens were not fully involved, there is a challenge in the leadership of the county,” said Shambi.

He said that the National government through the ministry of devolution should move with speed and bring all leadership at the county in agree or disagree table to come up with a solution.

His sentiments were echoed by Dhahir Dhaul a resident from Tana River and a member of the CSRG who said citizens normally come first on any matters concerning governance.

“Don’t take citizens of this nation for granted, what happened in TaitaTaveta is uncalled for, we as wananchi need to know what the  push and pull  between the county assembly and the executive is for,” said Dhahul.

At the same Irine Wakesho resident from Taita Taveta said that currently the county is leaderless thus a mediator which is the national government through the ministry of devolution should intervene.

“As a local from Taita am suffering, we have no leaders, and residents are not in peace,” she said.

Juliet Mwadime said that residents were not fully involved in coming up with the county budget that has caused mixed reaction between the executive and the county assembly.

“At no point did citizens got a notch of the budget, that the wrangles being experience is because of the greedy leaders,” said Mwadime.

The Taita Taveta governor moved to dissolve the county government earlier in the week citing conflict of interest among different parties.

 

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