Nyong’o told to deal with officers who made the ‘erroneous’ advert on land rate defaulters.

Human Rights activist Audi Ogada addressing the press in Kisumu today where he has asked Governor Nyong'o to deal with the officers who made the erroneous advert on land rate defaulters-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo

By Dickson Odhiambo

November 27, 2018

Nyong’o told to deal with officers who made the ‘erroneous’ advert on land rate defaulters.

KISUMU Governor Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o has been asked to immediately deal with the officers who made an ‘erroneous’ advertisement concerning the land rate defaulters in the County where the name of former Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga has been mentioned among other over 1,800 people as defaulters.

Civil rights activist Audi Ogada says the apology made yesterday by Governor Nyong’o particularly to the family of the doyen of Kenyan Opposition politics the Late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga is not enough and an immediate action by the Governor to the officers who are culpable about this should follow.

Addressing the press in Kisumu today, Ogada said he strongly condemns such an action of advertising the name of people erroneously in a daily newspaper without following due process for doing such.

“I want to condemn in the strongest terms possible the action that was taken to publish such a scandalous, disparaging and malicious advert in the newspaper without due process being followed especially the cabinet, the county Assembly and other stakeholders did not approve this advert. It was done in bad faith with an aim of maligning Kisumu residents,” Audi says.

He says a senior officer at the County Government and some senior officers at the Finance Department should take responsibility on this matter, adding that the County Secretary Olang’o Onudi who signed for such an advert to be published should be surcharged.

“We are saying that a mere apology is not enough and the person who authored this take responsibility fully,” Audi adds.

Audi claims that the ‘erroneous’ six-page advert in one of the local dailies has cost the tax payers’ money amounting about to an estimated shs 2.5 million plus the value added tax, adding that this money should be refunded back to the public coffers at the county within a period of one week.

“Public money must be used openly and public officers should be accountable on how they use public money,” he further says.

Audi at the same time urged the Governor to immediately disband the Task force on land he recently formed that has come out with part of the report that has been published, adding that the public has no faith at all in it. 

Governor Nyong’o through his Director of Governor’s Press Unit Aloice Ager yesterday issued an apology to the Family of the first Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga who was also mentioned in the advert within a daily newspaper as one of the defaulters of land rate.

A list published in the local dailies last week on Friday showed that Jaramogi Oginga and his son Dr. Oburu Oginga were amongst the top land rate defaulters within the county.

The list states that Ajuma Oginga Odinga, the owner of Kisumu Bloc 12/222, owes the county Sh7, 774,099 while Oginga Sh295,743. Dr Oginga’s land is marked as Kisumu Bloc 7/509.

Governor Anyang Nyong’o through the Governor Press unit sent there unreserved apology to the family for embarrassment caused by the publication.

The statement stated that the county government in an effort to manage the ballooning land rates account on default, which had serous impacts on revenue management, commissioned an exercise to compile a list of all the land rate defaulters and the actual amount in default in the county.

He says the reconciliation process entailed crosschecking with all relevant information including minutes from sessions by the full councils of those defunct authorities, the decision by the then state department of Local authority and the county cabinet.

He notes that the final document of this exercise unfortunately had not been processed through the county cabinet for final action.

Ager says it is therefore unfortunate that one of the many drafts pieces was erroneously sent for publication on one of the dailies.

 “It’s unfortunate that this version sent to the public is not the final document being sent to the cabinet and has caused untold embarrassment to the government,” he further says.

He further says this was  because some of the names appearing on that list were cleared during the processing period following receipts of relevant documentation and do not appear in the final document.

The names were in a published list of 1,871 defaulters that is of companies and individuals.

The defaulters according to the advert are required to clear their arrears by December 21 this year.

ENDS: