Kitui board ignored laws in picking municipality reps – officials

It has emerged that the law was not followed in the nomination of representatives for the Kitui municipality board.

Kitui county public service board chairperson Florence Makindi and Kitui acting county secretary Agnes Mulewa said there were glaring gaps in the nomination.

The officials revealed this to the Kitui county assembly appointments committee chaired by speaker Kevin Katisya.

The committee is interrogating bodies and associations that nominated the board members.

Makindi, whose Board presided over the interviewing and approval of three of the seven nominees, admitted that two nominees lacked statutory documents.

Katisya said the two nominees lacked CRB clearance and certificate of good conduct from the DCI.

While admitting the omission, Makindi told the committee that the mistake was regrettable and will not happen again.

Katisya said the two nominees should have out rightly been disqualified and forwarding their names to Malombe was wrong.

“You actually misled the governor, leaving us to sort out this mess,” he said.

The speaker faulted urban planing chief officer Evans Mutemi for starting the process of recruiting municipality board nominees, saying he did not have the powers.

He said only the governor, as the appointing authority, had power to order the recruitment.

Makindi said the chief officer acted on the strength of a cabinet memo that authorised the recruitment.

She was not, however, able to produce any letter to show that the Governor had delegated such powers to the chief officer.

Acting county secretary Agnes Mulewa said it was a mistake that some nominees made it to the vetting list without statutory documents.

“We take note of that of omission. I think this is a matter that needs to be corrected going forward,” she said.

The speaker also informed Mulewa that there was conflict of interest since chief officer Mutemi was a member of the Kitui Youth Link, a group that nominated one of its members.

Katisya said the Kitui Youth Link group  was not registered as the law demands.

“There is no law that prohibits government officers to become members of an association. However, in the case of the chief officer, he erred by failing to declare interest and withdrawing from the selection of his association’s nominee to municipality board,” she said.