Mandera County Plunged Into Chaos as Residents Decry Insecurity and Mismanagement

An anonymous insider has thrust into the spotlight Mandera County’s deep-seated issues and revealed a multitude of governance failures that have left the region reeling in poverty.

The source who spoke exclusively to us, on Monday, May 6, 2024, uncovered a landscape of mismanagement and neglect that has pushed Mandera to the edge and left its citizens.

Here is what he had to say.

“Hi Nyakundi. Please hide my identity. Let me tell you something about Mandera County. We are doomed as a county. Everything in our county is a mess. Let me start with the governor.

(1) There is no oversight role as the current Senator has been a former governor for the last 10 years. His party won by a landslide, so all the MCAs are in his pocket. The guy has lied and convinced the locals that the schools are free making that a big achievement, the budget for the schools is less than Ksh. 400 million and some even do not make to schools. Our budget for the county is Ksh. 12 billion. We have the most incompetent governor ever in Mandera County. Same WhatsApp group as Sakaja when it comes to academic fraud and rumor has it that he is a class 8 dropout masquerading as a degree holder.

(2) For the last 2 years, no tangible activity has been going on Mandera County. The previous regime used the county’s coffer to campaign. According to CoB report, as at 30th June, 2022 pending bills couldn’t be verified as the listing was not provided.

(3) Insecurity has been our biggest issue, politicians from Mandera take advantage of the situation. They do ghost projects that government agencies couldn’t access for accountability. 70% of the projects in Mandera could not be verified by government agencies like EACC and OAG. Which is the reason, when the officers want to go, they are told “Huko ni mbaya, wale watu wako”. Well, fuck them all; sometimes there is no such threat. As much as there is insecurity, or if there is security the leadership has instilled fear such that they are siphoning money in the name of Insecurity. There needs to be a verification of all the Mandera County projects since the inception of the county. Either through, local initiatives where the government just does it their own cost using professionals from every ward or someone has to be held accountable.

(4) The county government has really helped because we started everything from scratch; from hospitals to schools to subcounty roads. But we need more accountability. We need to get rid of politicians addressing us from Nairobi and going to Haji and Umrah knowing very well that they have stolen us dry.

(5) The MPs from Mandera are doing nothing. Let me speak for Mandera South. It has been 2 years. Mandera South MPs have implemented none of the projects. Nada. Only bursaries of Kshs. 45 million for the financial year 2022/23. For the financial year 23/24, we have not seen anything. Nothing. Maybe bursary disbursements of 7k each. We have allocations of more than Ksh. 175 million.

(6) We need serious accountability in Mandera. We have leadership who reside in Nairobi holding meetings in Nairobi, taking their kids to the best schools, and leaving their residents to God’s mercy.

Recent rainy seasons show Mandera has potential. But all the rainwater has gone to waste. There is no one single mega dam in Mandera that can store water for the dry season. The previous governor constructed water pans at exaggerated cost and awarded his cronies. Things must work,” the source concludes.