Nakuru MCAs want Kihika summoned over county spending
Rift Valley
By
Daniel Chege
| Oct 09, 2026
Nakuru Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) want Governor Susan Kihika summoned before the house to shed light on the discrepancy between budgetary allocations and actual expenditure.
The MCAs unanimously agreed that the county government was doing badly and the only person with all the answers to alleged procurement irregularities, misuse of funds and lack of accountability was Governor Kihika.
The demand followed thorough interrogations of County Executive Committee Members (CECM) over the last week.
According to the MCAs, the majority of the CECMs were either clueless about budget allocations, procurement processes, and expenditure in their respective departments, or they were hiding details for fear of victimisation.
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Naivasha East MCA Stanley Karanja pointed out during the interrogations that the Governor reshuffled some of the CECMs and Chief Officers (COs), raising concerns about the departments’ management.
“Some of the CECMs and COs discovered that their positions and departments had been changed while in the Assembly, and the big question is: do they have the powers?” asked Karanja.
Karanja particularly sought the governor’s indulgence over bursary allocations to educational institutions and the Government-to-Government (G-to-G) deal on Imarisha Barabara.
“The governor has all the answers, and we want her to come and speak on the G-to-G deals for infrastructure and roads,” he said.
According to the MCA, those responsible, including COs in the respective departments, who are usually the accounting officers, were not present during the interrogations.
He believed that the reshuffle and the alleged deliberate absence of the COs were to ensure that the county government was not accountable for alleged failed projects and procurement irregularities.
“They fear speaking on sensitive issues because of victimisation. Without the governor, the public will not get answers to critical questions,” he stated.
Karanja further noted that since she took office in 2022, Kihika has only delivered one State of the County address before the assembly.
Maela Ward MCA Jane Gituku retaliated that Kihika’s presence was paramount, noting that some of the CECMs were allegedly helpless during their interrogations.
“We notice that even though they represent departments, the CECMs cannot answer simple questions and some of them, we feel they deliberately ignore or hesitate,” she noted.
Gituku said she believed that some of the executives had no authority to speak on certain issues, even though they touched on matters that fell within their departments, as those were above their authority.
“Some of these questions require candid answers which we will not get unless the Chief in charge, who is the governor, comes here,” she said.
Olkaria Ward MCA Peter Palang’a pointed out serious gaps in the coordination among the different departments that form the county government.
He maintained that the said gaps had led to departments working in isolation, resulting in delayed projects that required input from more than one department.
“It is clear that we are not doing well in terms of project implementations. Some of the delays seem deliberate while some are due to failures of responsible officers,” he said.
According to Palang’a, the assembly would be forced to impeach some of the CECMs to ensure that work was done.
The demand came even as the MCAs questioned CECM Lands and Infrastructure over delayed road construction and a lack of streetlights, despite allocations.
The CECMs were pressed on the Imarisha Barabara for the 55 wards in Nakuru and the progress they had made.
Engineer Michael Kamau, the CECM for Infrastructure, promised that the county government was working to ensure that all the wards have roads.
The grilling of the department heads is expected to continue next week.
dchege@standardmedia.co.ke