Panic and tension has gripped Nyamira county government headquarters after the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters summoned four senior county officers over allegations of abuse of office.
The four are required to record statements over claims that they have abused their offices contrary to section 101 of the penal code.
In a letter addressed to the county secretary who is also the head of public service, the DCI wants the four to appear in their offices in Nairobi to assist and facilitate the agency with allegations of abuse of office.
Those summoned are officers working in department of Finance and Accounting namely, Dominic Barare who is the Chief officer in the department of Finance and Accounting, Purity Nyamboga the Head of county treasury, Geoffrey Kiriago who is the Director Human Resource) and Brian Nyabeo the Acting payroll manager.
In a letter which was signed by A Shuria of behalf of the Director of Criminal Investigations dated February 5, 2024 it read: “The office of the DCI is investigating an allegation of abuse of office contrary to Section 101 of the penal code. To facilitate our investigations kindly direct the following officers to appear at the DCI headquarters ECCU office first floor Block room 12 and record statements in relation to their said allegation”.
The officers in questions are supposed to appear before the DCI between February 12 and February15, 2024.
The officers were summoned two weeks after the county chief of staff Dennis Onsarigo resigned citing high level of corruption in the county government of Nyamira.
Dennis Onsarigo Resignation
In his resignation letter, Onsarigo had claimed that the Treasury department was riddled with rampant corruption and he had chosen to resign because he never wanted to be part of government which was embracing and glorifying corruption.
In his resignation letter dated January 24 2024, a copy of which is in possession, Onsarigo narrates a number challenges he encountered in the course of discharging his duties as chief-of-staff before deciding to call it quits.
The letter also exposes the rot in the county government of Nyamira which is run singlehandedly by the county boss.
In the three-page letter addressed to the governor, Onsarigo outlined the social and economic evils which were being committed in the government which he wanted the governor to address but he had failed to heed to his advice.
He cited the numerous complaints and allegations by parents from the county that whenever their children were seeking jobs in the county government, they had to part with bribes in order for them to secure the jobs, complaints which the governor had given a deaf ear.
Onsarigo confessed that he had made efforts to meet the governor so that he can brief him about the challenges in his administration but the governor chose to ignore him.
“As you may be aware, I have made several attempts, more than six times, to seek audience with you to discuss an elaborate plan on how best the office of the chief- of-staff would function in the execution of your manifesto while supporting other departments in a aligning their short and long plans largely drawing their strengths from the mother manifesto, (but) unfortunately, this did not materialise,” read the letter.
“It’s unfortunate that my office had a chance to put the complete stop, the several instances where your security team including the drivers could go for months without their allowances still do despite the controller of the budget releasing the monies in their names but it ended up not getting paid,” he stated.
“It was also my desire to continuously and in confidence brief you on the largely held view by the staff in the governor’s office /the county civil service that our office has suffered a deep mistrust, open rebellion and to the larger extent entertained the thought they were being used as a conduit of siphoning public funds. This widely held view that the donor funded projects monies, single sourcing of contracts among other lucrative projects are avenues to divert public funds have been of grave concern to me and a chance to dispel these baseless allegations would have been possible if you had given me the much sought audience for the last one year,” Onsarigo lamented.
He also accused the governor of frustrating his efforts of improving service delivery and government relations. Onsarigo in his letter lamented that he had proposed the creation of the position of an administrator domiciled at the governor’s office, the position which was to serve the ever-ending concerns of dysfunctional office had greatly impacted on service delivery.
“The deployment of advisers to respective departments also meant to increase the governor’s presence in the departments and bring to an end the long held view of underutilisation of staff in the governor’s office. Unfortunately, this just remained an idea”.
The journalist also revealed that he had envisioned an end to the uncomfortable and embarrassing instances where the governor was forced to stop at a petrol station waiting for his official vehicle to be fuelled by an accounting officer who could not be reached on phone despite his ever ending steps of reprimanding of the officer.
“This stands out as perhaps the most agonising and low moment I experienced as your chief-of-staff,” he told Governor Nyaribo in the letter.
“It is extremely painful as well that a plan to put measures aimed at making your personal comfort and security my utmost priority came a cropper, plans including and not limited to making available for your use an alternative vehicle, an extra bodyguard because you have only been operating with one for more than five months, fatigue notwithstanding, fuel cards and resources for structured servicing and fuelling failed drastically in what appeared to be internally engineered and okayed strategy where money to be accrued from these services and interventions unfortunately placed your life and comfort at risk. It is regrettable!” he revealed and exposed the weakness of the governor and challenges he was undergoing in his administration.
Onsarigo further revealed that despite the dedication and hard work from their team, it had become clear that the obstacles they were facing were beyond his immediate control and therefore his continued presence as the chief of staff was regrettably not conducive to the progressive they had desired.
“I expressed my fears to you not once but severally that it will get into a point where I will be viewed as incompetent not because of incompetence sake but a regime unwilling to accommodate new and bold ideas and one that is captive to a past riddled with self-engineered setbacks”.
It is now emerging that Onsarigo was imposed by Raila to the county government of Nyamira and that was why the governor had no space for him.
Sources close to Nyaribo confided to us that the governor viewed Onsarigo as a spy for Raila and that was why he never allowed him to know more about his government.
Ideally, the chief-of-staff is supposed to be the accounting officer in the governor’s office but the governor ignored Onsarigo and gave the mandate to Mwecha Nyasimi who is also a chief officer in the department of agriculture.
In his ending remarks he said, “It is my hope that my departure will allow for a fresh perspective and renewed momentum towards achieving the shared goals that have driven us. Nyamira county remains my home and I shall come back in the near future to serve our people in a different capacity and under different circumstances”.
