Governor Nanok, Jubilee ‘war’ plays out at Uhuru tour of Turkana

The frosty relationship between Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok and Jubilee government played out during President Uhuru Kenyatta's tour of the arid county on Wednesday.

The governor sparked an angry reaction from the President after he criticised Government plans to amend the Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill to deny local communities 10 per cent oil share benefit as earlier proposed. The oil share benefit has been reduced to five per cent.

The President, accompanied by his deputy William Ruto, was in Lodwar to launch a drought mitigation plan to cushion pastoralists from major losses.

Nanok, the ODM point man in the region, set the stage for the exchange after he said oil proceeds to the local community had been capped to 'nothing useful'.

"Our opposition is the capping of the oil revenue from trillions to Sh22 billion and for the local community to around Sh3 billion," Mr Nanok said.

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But Uhuru hit back accusing him of having little to show for the more than Sh40 billion of devolved funds disbursed over the last four years.

He accused the governor of peddling falsehoods that he was only interested in the region's oil and not development.

"Turkana County deserves to develop at the same pace as other counties and its residents have a right to receive efficient and effective services under the devolved unit as other counties," he said.