Mandera MCA dishonest about funds used in ward
A few days ago, Abdullahi Yunis Guliye, the MCA of Morothile Ward in Mandera County addressed the media, alleging that there was no development fund allocation to his ward.
Nothing can be further from the truth. For the record, Morothile Ward has received in excess of Sh136 million in development funds.
Mandera county government wishes to set the record straight and dismisses his baseless allegations not supported by any material facts and couched with propaganda. His theatrics cannot pass unchallenged.
Facts are sacrosanct and we hereby detail the breakdown of some funds flowed to Marothile Ward since the advent of devolution.
The ward has received numerous development projects prioritised by its leaders and residents through public participation programmes over the last five financial years ranging from roads, water infrastructure, health infrastructure, market sheds, boreholes, and social support to the women and youth groups by providing them with sewing machines, Early Childhoood Development Education (ECDE) materials. Some of the projects are listed below.
Some 1,328 needy students from the ward have been able to access education through Mandera county bursary fund disbursements totalling over Sh4.3 million over the last three years when Guliye has been in office.
To turn a blind eye to the support his constituents are enjoying is dishonest and a show of hypocrisy from the honourable leader.
Some projects financed by the county government include the 2020/21 allocation for water and education sector at Sh13.5 million; on-going 2019-20 Awara Morothile road construction at Sh43 million, renovation of water kiosks for Morothile town community at Sh1.4 million; supply of ECDE material to Ashabito and Morothile Primary Schools at Sh3 million; solar street lighting at Sh20 million and drilling and equipping of a borehole at Sh9 million.
Earlier the county government extended piped water to Morothile Community having spent cumulatively over Sh20 million.
Small scale traders also enjoy market stalls, all constructed by funds set aside for this ward.
For those seeking health services, a dispensary at Kubi Ward has been put up at the cost of Sh4.5 million.
Speaking of equitable sharing of resources, Morothile Ward occupies a land mass of 249km2 out of 26,000km2 of the county.
Thereby being the second smallest ward in whole county- its only bigger than Rhamu Town Ward — it definitely will not receive the amount of allocation as other larger wards with bigger geographical land area and larger population.
The projects allocated funds were prioritised during public participation exercises carried out at two levels, by the Executive and the County Assembly.
Over and above this, Guliye who now purports to have not seen any development fund allocations to his ward has been a member of the Assembly Budget Committee since his election in 2017, up until last week when he was de-whipped by the Jubilee Party.
We appreciate the constitutional and legal mandate of the elected MCA. If he has not offered oversight to funds going to his ward and those of his 29 counterparts and how they have impacted the lives of people then, it appears he has abdicated his mandate and is sleeping on the job.
One may not be mistaken to understand that the bitterness of the leader may be directly linked to his Jubilee Party tribulations and why he has been defrocked and not in any way related to resource sharing. — The writer is the Chief of Staff, Mandera County Government
