By Team
Kisumu County could be on the spot after a whistle-blower reached out to the World Bank over the alleged misuse of Sh 2 billion for affordable housing.
This comes hot on the heels after the National Assembly, watchdog committee the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) threatened to issue a summon to the governor to shed light on the expenditures accounts on the donor fund after it was flagged by the Auditor General.
In an email dated 27th September 2024 from Beatric Eraso Puig to Mr. Bob Ndolo, a former member of Kisumu County Assembly read in parts “Thank you for reaching out to the World Bank one more time on this matter. Please note that the World Bank takes very seriously allegations of fraud or corruption in operations,” read the email in parts.
“ We note that you have already reached out to our INT colleagues.INT will reach out to you one more time to further discuss this with you. We also note that you have reached out to EACC, read the email.
Beatriz Eraso Puig is a Senior Uban Development Specialist at the World Bank. She is currently based in Kenya managing the Kenya Urban Support Program and working on urban resilience, city climate planning, and urban mobility.
Ndolo a former MCA turned whistleblower had earlier written, County Director, World Bank, Nairobi over alleged misuse of Sh2 billion International Development Agency (IDA) donor funds for affordable housing in Kisumu county.
“ Corruption often fights back, and I am now facing false accusations of fraud after reporting fraudulent activities involving International Development Association (IDA) funds dating back to 2018,” he wrote
“It is crucial that we recover the misappropriated IDA funds in Kisumu county as detailed in the Auditor General’s reports under the State Department of Housing. The misuse of these funds cannot be ignored,” he wrote in his email to the World Bank.
When The Western Insight made a telephone call to Kisumu Governor, Prof Anyang Nyong’o the call was not answered and the whats up message was not responded to.
Similarly, we contacted the Kisumu city manager Mr. Abala Wanga, who neither responded to our calls nor text messages.
Previously, the National Assembly had considered summoning Governor Nyong’o over the misuse of over Sh2 billion in donor funds meant for the county’s urban development projects.
The resolution of the public accounts committee (PAC) then under Unguja MP and now cabinet secretary for energy, Mr Opiyo Wandayi came after the county failed to present its expenditure returns to the state Department of Housing as required by the Public Finance Management (PFM) act.
The need to summon Nyong’o came after Housing Principal Secretary Charles Hinga while appearing before the PAC, a watchdog committee of the national assembly, expressed frustrations from the governor and the employees of the county government on the need to be furnished with responses on the expenditures.
The expenditures issues had been flagged by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in the accounts of the state department for housing for the year 2018/2019 that PAC was currently considering.
“ We will be compelled to summon the Kisumu governor as it is evident the money is being ‘eaten’ by county staff. There is a need for the matter to be probed,’ Wandayi said then a story reported by the Nation Newspaper.
He said so far, the county had received over Sh 2 billion for the last three financial years but it cannot account for the IDA funds.
Kisumu county is among those other counties that received Sh 13,32 billion from IDA for the urban projects but the lack of expenditure returns cast doubts on the continuity of the project.
