The devolution conference held in Kakamega county last week attracted thousands of delegates from all counties apart from Elgeyo Marakwet.
The governor, Alex Tolgos and other members of the county executive committee resorted to following the events live on their TV screens as they unfolded. The area Senator Kipchumba Murkomen was present at the 3-day event but as a representative of ‘leader of majority’ position in the Senate and not representing Elgeyo Marakwet.
Fresh details and accusations of poor planning and failure to remit the Sh2 million facilitation fee to the Council of Governors (CoG) has been named as their reason for the absence. The money was a payment required by all the 47 counties to be allowed to participate in the meeting.
“It became clear that we will not attend the conference when we engaged the executive to confirm on the details of where we will be hosted in Kakamega and we were told that it will be impossible for the county to pay the required fees,” said Elgeyo Marakwet County Assembly Speaker Philemon Sabulei.
When the devolution conference was beginning, Governor Tolgos was in Eldoret for a leadership meeting to discuss the upcoming mega Aror and Kimwarer dams.
No official from the County attended the annual conference that was held at the Kakamega High School with close to 6,000 delegates attending.