The Kisumu County Assembly Water and Sanitation Committee has been accused of misusing public funds while visiting the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company on April 16.
Committee chairman Benjamin Onyang'o was put to explain to the House why only five of the twelve members of the committee had appended their signatures to the report tabled before the House.
Onyango Oloo, the Ahero MCA said the committee wasted taxpayers’ money having conducted a benchmarking exercise in Nairobi without having analysed the situation at Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company (KIWASCO), a fact the committee chairman had confirmed to the House.
Nyakach Central MCA Elijah Omondi said it was inappropriate for the committee to table a technical report that members could not comprehend.
Mr Omondi said the technicality in management of water and sewerage systems required that the committee identified technical staff from KIWASCO to lead the benchmark exercise since they understood the matter best compared to the committee members.
“The report is technical for members since how aerobic and anaerobic bacteria decompose sewerage and the entire process is for the technical team at KIWASCO," he said.
"The committee should have studied the state in water and sanitation in the county and involve technocrats in analysing the preparation of the report."
After tabling the report with recommendations, the committee chairman said they were intending to meet the KIWASCO staff to deliberate on the report.
Nominated Youth MCA Susan Omollo said the technical nature of the report might have prompted the seven members’ failure to append signatures on the report.
“Some of the committee members might have not understood the report filed after their visit to Nairobi. They might have avoided signing a document with content they could not comprehend,” said Ms Omollo.
Only three members of the committee were present during the tabling of the report, raising questions on their participation in the committee work.
The committee recommended that the county government should seek donor and private partnership programs that would improve water and sanitation in Kisumu after finding out that such programs were largely funded NCWSC.
If adopted, the Assembly will seek to allocate more funds to enable installation of solar power for the water pumps to cut on the operations costs.