Siaya Governor James Orengo and County Assembly Speaker George Okode are said to have fallen out over the pending appointment of the substantive speaker of the assembly.
Okode is said to be pushing for the Acting Clerk Eric Ogenga while Orengo has a divergent opinion citing claims of corruption and mismanagement by the acting clerk.
Orengo is said to be lobbying for a clerk of his choice who will ensure his agenda is pushed in the assembly.
Currently, Orengo enjoys overwhelming support among the MCAs while the speaker is said to be in bad books with a number of MCAs who claim that he is not serving agenda but only out to fulfill selfish interests.
According to Orengo, Ogenga is incompetent and has been mentioned in a number of audit reports including the 2020/2021 auditor general report which revealed that Ksh109,764,972 was spent on domestic travel and subsistence allowances and which includes Ksh5,811,600 in respect of hire of hotel and subsistence allowances to Members of County Assembly and staff undertaking general oversight committee meeting outside the County.
This is contrary to The National Treasury Circular No. 20/2015 of 4 November, 2015, that prohibits out of station events to discuss strategy documents, consultants’ reports, or for any other assignments that would ordinary be done in local offices.
There was no justification for holding the meeting outside Siaya County as the activity listed could have been held locally.
In the circumstances, it was not possible to confirm the validity of expenditure of Ksh5,811,600 as a proper charge to public funds and that value for money was realised.
