- Arati won as ODM governor candidate with 280,000 votes against his closest challenger, Ezekiel Machogu of UDA, who garnered 80,000 votes.
- Regarding his rapport with his deputy Robert Monda, Arati stated that there was no animosity between them.
Image: MAGATI OBEBO
Kisii Governor Simba Arati on Sunday said he has weathered a tumultuous political season of his time to get the county to where it is currently.
He said he found a devolved unit already collapsing under the clumsy weight of graft when he entered office.
"Definitely, it hasn't been easy navigating to get here for us both as an administration and as a county; it is God," he told the Star during an exclusive interview early Sunday at his Motonto home in Bobasi.
The former Dagoreti MP said he found an environment already saturated with deep suspicion, and the first assignment involved getting to convince them he had come with clean hands.
"It had to take some convincing, even from the workers, that it was time to get things right," he said.
"There wasn't even a tissue in the toilets, and the offices were leaking. The morale was gravely low."
Arati won as ODM governor candidate with 280,000 votes against his closest challenger, Ezekiel Machogu of UDA, who garnered 80,000 votes.
Arati says politics is now behind him, and it is time to work.
Slowly, he said, he is overcoming his critics with the right administrative practices.
Not all agree with him, however.
The governor says some ward reps have since walked out on him accusing him of doing little and politicking more.
Arati, they say, is mark timing in office perpetually punching shadows in the dark .
Arati, however, defends himself, saying it was because he was a stickler for details that some have abandoned him.
Injecting accountability on those he has entrusted to work has earned him more critics by the day, he says.
"Some times it is all about wanting to fix things here and there; some people need to be pushed, you cannot avoid this, and it can brush others wrongly, but at the end of the day our people need services," stated Arati during an exclusive interview at his home .
"There are those who thought I had come to prepare a big table for them to eat more, and when I disappointed them, they checked out and turned into my fiercest critics.
"I don't regret going to these lengths to protect public money," he told the Star.
He said he would do it again, even if polls were to be conducted today.
"I will definitely stand at the gate again to thwart thieves prowling on public money. No society progresses by stealing from itself, and I say this as a governor: the highest sacrifice I can make is to ensure prudent exploitation of the resources to advance the interests of my people, "he said.
The devolved unit boss says he has already managed to eliminate cartels, adding that he has since sealed revenue leakages and set new standards in county administration.
"From a low of Sh20 million to Sh30 million in revenue collection during the former administration, we are now talking of more than Sh170 million in collections," Arati said.
"I found people pocketing revenue and we had to put an end to this madness."
He spoke of efforts to mend things in the education sector, especially in basic education, where he has funded the construction of more than 128 ECDE classrooms.
He said the ECDE tutors have already been absorbed into permanent and pensionable terms.
"They have been living deplorable lives; some could not even pay fees for their children under the terms they worked before. It is a pity," Arati said.
Regarding the state of roads, Arati readily admitted there had been missteps, adding he had to sort out contractor issues.
"By November, we had already come up with the best formula to deal with the question of infrastructure. There shall be one chief contractor per constituency, on whose back lies the responsibility for quality work on our roads. We deliberately ran away from recruiting so many disparate groups, resulting in substandard work, "Arati said.
Consequently, work on all county roads is due to commence by mid-January or February, depending on how soon the rains subside, the county boss said.
"I know there has been desperation in some quarters, which is normal, but for me, it is good that one takes two hours to whet an axe and then cut down the tree in less than 40 minutes than the other way around," he stated.
He said he would not stand badly-done work on country roads.
"Return here when work begins and ask me about the quality of work on the roads; I think you will agree that I am in the business to make Kisii great, "said the man who set his political career as a councilor in Nairobi.
On bursaries, Arati says his administration has since scaled it up from Sh 3 million to Sh5 million per ward.
"This will heavily boost the chances of bright students, but from poor homes, to earn an education. Already, testimonies have begun to pour in, and many are touching," the ODM vice chair said.
Controversy has, however, erupted over his plan to bypass rebel ward reps and use chiefs to distribute bursary forms.
The ward reps, some from his backyard in Bobasi, have told chiefs to steer clear of the exercise.
Arati, however, said the bursary was not a political tool but his genuine concern.
"I advise those feeling aggrieved that the true grief that I am out to address is from that boy or girl on the verge of losing hope of returning to school this January because of a scarcity of money, not them, he said.
Arati also spoke of plans to invest more in crop value addition to help rev up income for the farmers.
He spoke of the pain he sees when middlemen swindle farmers.
"If you have been a farmer, you know the struggle he goes through, sweating out through the elements to put something on his table, and yet there is a thieving broker lurking somewhere in the larger chain of the distribution to also eat from where he has not sown. It is inhuman, "Arati said.
Special efforts by his administration have been directed at bananas and soapstones.
He said more farmers are getting sensitised to deliver their crops to the banana factory located at Agricultural Training Centre in Kisii.
"Up to now, there are farmers who don't know we have both the banana and avocado factories at the ATC, and many of them are still being swindled off by brokers," Arati stated.
Regarding his rapport with his deputy Robert Monda, Arati stated that there was no animosity between them.
"We are working well, nothing untoward, and if there has been any misunderstanding, it will be handled, "he said.
He said Monda himself cleared the air, saying they had not broken ranks.