Homa Bay MCAs clash over budget

Nominated MCAs from Homa Bay on Tuesday afternoon stormed a hotel in Kisumu and flashed out their elected counterparts who they accused of plotting to pass the budget without involving them.

The MCAs also claimed the elected were being bribed to pass a budget that had many loopholes including allocations that were not proposed by members of the public.

The elected members were forced to flee as the nominated colleagues pelted them with stones.

The nominated MCAs claimed that their colleagues were entering into secret deals with the executive to pass the estimates.

“We won’t allow our colleagues to pass a budget that is not public friendly. We will only pass programs that are in the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP),” said Kevin Onyango, a nominated MCA.

He challenged the assembly's leadership to come clean on the issue.

But Homa Bay governor through the county’s director of communication Maurice Kaluoch termed claims of bribing as outrageous and unfortunate to come from a section of the MCAs.

“The governor should be kept away from assembly issues. The executive played its part and presented the budget before the assembly in time,” said Mr Kaluoch.

Homa Bay is among few counties that failed to meet the June 30 deadline of approving county budget estimates.

The County official said the governor has been away for three weeks and there is no time he has approached the elected leaders to bribe them.

“There are around 40 MCAs. If you were to pay them Sh3 million each to pass the budget, it would cost him Sh120 million, where is the cash going to come from?” posed Mr Kaluoch.

While condemning the incident that happened at the hotel, he asked the MCAs to sort out their issues amicably without involving the executive.