Migori Governor Okoth Obado was on Wednesday forced to cut short his speech and abandon a meeting in Kegonga, Kuria East over the choice of which municipalities to upgrade, in a project funded by World Bank.
Governor Obado forced to cut short his speech, abandon meeting
Governor Obado remarks lands him in trouble
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Kuria East MP Marwa Kitayama, who was present at the gathering, and the area residents, were angered when Obado decided not include the Kuria region and instead tried to defend why he picked Rongo, Migori and Awendo towns to benefit from the project.
“I have tried to explain to my brother (Mr Kitayama) the truth about the World Bank project but he has refused to listen. He wants to incite the Kuria people against me so that they can think Obado is such a bad person.
“He is the only one who knows his aim of besmirching my name. He is here and I do not want to speak behind his back,” remarked Obado.
The Governor was forced to stop his speech after the people began shouting him down with some picking up stones, knobkerries and clubs ready to stir up chaos.
The Migori County boss’s security tried to intervene in an attempt to calm down the agitated crowd but were unsuccessful leading to the abrupt departure of Obado.
Kitayama had accused the embattled Obado of deliberately leaving out the Kuria area from the upgrade in a project that cost Sh516 million.
“If governor Josephat Nanok of Turkana gave Kakuma refugee camp a municipality what of Kuria which had a municipality at Kehancha since time immemorial? Then when we demand to know we are accused of playing politics,” stated the Kuria East MP.
Sh28 billion grant by World Bank
In January, Kitayama and Nominated MP Dennitah had affirmed that they would block the multimillion project if the area was not included.
"We are not going to allow Migori county to marginalise Kuria region.
"We cannot understand why the World Bank project is being taken to the Luo side yet Kuria region has got the two biggest municipalities after Migori. Not even one of the municipalities has been considered," remarked Kitayama.
The international bank had given a Sh28 billion grant to the Kenya Urban Support Programme, that was to be carried out across all the 47 counties.
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