Stop deploying hooliganism against citizens and CSOs Actors, 4 Nyanza Governors told

Civil Society Reference Group{M} head  Churchil Suba, Community Initiative Action Group{CIAG}_Kenya head Chris Owalla{L}  and Kisumu City Residents Voice{KICIREVO}  Audi Ogada address the press in Kisumu today where they have told the Governors in Four Counties of Nyanza to stop deploying hooliganism against the citizens and Civil Society actors who raise legitimate concerns about how the counties are run-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo

By Dickson Odhiambo

  August 3, 2020

Stop deploying hooliganism against citizens and CSOs Actors, 4 Nyanza Governors told

Governors within Four counties in Nyanza Region have been called upon not to deploy hooliganism against the citizens and Civil Society actors who raise legitimate concerns about how the counties are run.

Four Civil Societies Organizations namely Civil Society Reference Group{CSRG} led by Churchil Suba, Community Initiative Action Group{CIAG}_Kenya of Chris Owalla, Kisumu City Residents Voice{KICIREVO}  led by Audi Ogada and Transparency International –Kenya led by Titus Ogalo have warned the four counties’ leadership of Migori, Siaya, Homa Bay and Kisumu that citizens and CSOs in the region will take legal actions should they continue with what they have termed as underhand and undemocratic tactics.

Addressing the press in Kisumu today to decry the shrinking citizens’ space in Siaya, Kisumu Homa Bay and Migori counties, the four CSOs in a press statement said four Governors namely Okoth Obado of Migori, Cyprian Awiti of Homa Bay, Cornel Rasanga from Siaya and Prof Anyang Nyong’o of Kisumu should desist from the act of deploying hooliganism on citizens and members of the Civil societies who raise concerns on the management of their counties.

In a signed Press statement read by the Civil Society Reference Group {CSRG} head Churchill Suba says the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Siaya County and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to speed up the process of prosecuting a senior officer in the county Government of Siaya.

The CSOs claim that the on July 4 this year, the Coordinator of Community Initiative Action Group {CIAG} _Kenya of Chris Owalla was allegedly accosted and assaulted by Siaya County Executive Member in charge of Governance and Administration Dismas Odhiambo Wakla on claims that Owalla was constantly raising governance issues that were not the interest of Alego clan in Siaya County which Wakla and Siaya Governor hail from.

“Mr Wakla’s grouse against the CIAG and Mr. Owalla is that the organization had earlier petitioned Siaya County Assembly not to clear a number of candidates nominated by Governor Rasanga for appointment to the County Executive Committee and Mr. Wakla was among the nine candidates whose integrity had been questioned. They had to wait for almost nine months before finally getting appointed after county Assembly members were apparently compromised,” read part of the statement.

They say Owalla has since reported the incident to the police at Ugunja Police station via OB Number 34/06/07/2020 and was last informed by the DCI in Siaya that once clearance to prosecute the case is obtained from the ODPP in line with the latest guidelines on public prosecutions then the suspect will be arraigned in court.

“It will be recalled that early this year, Caren Anyango Adhola, a staff member at CIAG-Kenya, the organization that Mr. Owalla leads was attacked and killed in their office premises in Riat area of Kisumu under the circumstances that the police are yet to fully investigate, and no suspect have been arraigned in court in connection with the gruesome murder,” the statement further say.

 

In Homa Bay County, the CSOs have cited a case of Evans Otieno Oloo Gor, the chairperson of Interface Community Help Desk Organization was attacked on May 4 this year by goons after seeking to establish whether the much hype Covid-19 isolation center in the county was real of a hoax.

“This was after the public raised concerns about reported renovations at the facility, pointing out that there were no partitions separating wards for male and female patients. He was attacked by about five youth who claimed that they were acting on the behest of senior County Government officials. The matter was reported at Homa Bay Police station,” says the statement, adding that cases of the murders of former Kibiri Ward Rep Boaz Ondiek and Donny Opar who was shot at his petrol station barely days after he had been nominated to take over the county department of Public works are also there.

In Kisumu County, the CSOs claim that the County Assembly of Kisumu is allegedly completely compromised as individual MCAs compete for tenders from the County Executive wing and have subsequently lost the moral high ground to hold the executive arm of the county government to account.

“Citizens and civil societies Organizations who raise these concerns are targeted for intimidation and harassment by the use of goons that are ready to kill and maim in exchange for handouts,” they further say.

It is against this background that the CSOs have called upon the DCI and ODPP to explain why no suspect have been arraigned in court in connection with the murder Caren Anyango Adhola, the CIAG-Kenya staff on January 14,2020.

They have also called upon the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission offices in Siaya, Kisumu, Homa Bay and Migori Counties and its national Office in Nairobi to immediately conduct lifestyle audits on senior county executive members and County Assembly members with a view to determining whether the wealth in their possession is commensurate with their legitimate earnings and conflict of interest concerning arising from doing business with the county governments they are supposed to oversight.

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