Nyamira Governor John Nyagarama’s decision to launch a programme dubbed Governor Mashinani has been labelled as ‘wastage of public funds’ by two gubernatorial aspirants.
On Wednesday, Nyagarama launched the programme in Nyansiongo, Borabu sub-county, which allows residents to interact with the leadership from various county government departments as part of public participation before implementation of projects.
Speaking separately to this reporter, gubernatorial aspirants William Nyakiba and Mwancha Okioma faulted the county government and called for an immediate halting of the exercise.
“This county government is a real threat to our economy. The (Governor) Mashinani exercise is wastage of taxpayer’s money and we risk losing yet again millions to such a programme,” Nyakiba said.
“The county assembly is given a mandate under Article 196 of the Constitution to hold public participation meetings. They are representatives of people and we can’t really have a duplication of exercises which will make us loose than gain,” he added.
Okioma on his part challenged the county government to halt the programme for the sake of saving the county from incurring unnecessary expenses.
“I expected the assembly to dismiss such a move. We are likely to incur unnecessary expenses over the matter. It must be halted with immediate effect,” he said.
But Nyagarama on Wednesday had backed the exercise saying it would allow him to reach people and have dialogue over development.