- The six board members are Catherine Omweso (Chairperson), John Wanyama, Stanley Were, Joel Omukoko, Sylvia Otunga and Raphael Wangatia.
- The county assembly committee on public services and administration will start hearing the petition on November 29, at the assembly board room.
Image: HILTON OTENYO
Six members of the Kakamega County Public Service Board (CBSB) have been asked to file their response ahead of hearing of a petition seeking to impeach the board.
County assembly acting clerk Esther Ariko, in a notice dated November 17, asked the six members to submit their written responses to her office before next Monday.
The six board members are Catherine Omweso (Chairperson), John Wanyama, Stanley Were, Joel Omukoko, Sylvia Otunga and Raphael Wangatia.
The petition was filed by Dennis Muhanda in September, seeking to impeach the entire board on various grounds including serious violation of the constitution, breach of statute law, abuse of office, gross misconduct, conflict of interest, and incompetence.
“Do also notify the committee on how you propose to appear before the committee; whether in person, by advocate, or both and whether or not you shall call witnesses, and if so, the names and addresses of the persons to be called as witnesses, statements and any other evidence to be relied on,” the notice reads.
The county assembly committee on public services and administration will start hearing the petition on November 29, at the assembly board room.
Muhanda who is also the UDA chairman for Kakamega county, accuses the board of conspiring with former governor Wycliffe Oparanya, to unlawfully remove Catherine Gathoni as a member of the board.
In his petition, Muhanda said the board commenced disciplinary action against Gathoni, despite lacking such mandate within the law.
He accuses the board of illegally and unlawfully appointing Rose Omondi as a signatory to its bank accounts, a position only reserved for the head of county treasury.
The petitioner says the displayed incompetence by firing 47 revenue clerks illegally who were later reinstated by the Public Service Board after appeals, cost the county government funds that would have otherwise been avoided.
The petitioner said the board members, unlawfully, illegally and without any legal basis, authorised and approved and paid out public funds to third parties including to themselves, contrary to provisions of Public Finance Management Act, by purporting to perform the functions of a public officer without approval of the County Assembly of Kakamega as required by law.
The petition reads in part that the board employed six persons with dubious academic papers, and failed to commence disciplinary proceedings against the said persons, thereby abdicating their duties and roles in violation of section 59(1)(c) of the County Governments Act, 2012.
The seven named in the petition are Desterio Okumu who had been hired as an economic advisor, Fred Muka (Assistant chief liason officer, Geoffrey Mimodi (personal assistant), Thomas Oyolo (government receptionist), Tarig Azziz (public communication officer I I) and Anderson Musungu as Public Communication Officer I.
The petition reads that the board recruited up to 400 revenue clerks without request and approval of the county executive committee between July 2020 and June 2021.
It said the chairperson usurped the role of the Chief Executive Officer of the board and purported to make communications on behalf of the board without such authority.
The petition comes six months after two other petitioners petitioned the county assembly, seeking impeachment of the board on almost similar grounds in February.
Edwin Shivakale and Alex Shikanga would later withdraw their petitions unconditionally in unclear circumstances.
The assembly committee on public service and administration is yet to table its report on the two petitions.