By Micah Sali.
Wycliffe Wangamati is under intense scrutiny for numerous financial irregularities that occurred during his tenure as Governor of Bungoma County that led to a loss of Ksh 1.05 billion.
Speaking to the media today Bungoma Senator David Wafula Wakoli said that a forensic audit is being undertaken to uncover large-scale corruption that occurred during Wangamati’s reign.
The Bungoma Senator claimed that out of the Ksh 1.05 billion lost , an audit has reveled that over Sh750 million earmarked for county government pensioners was misappropriated while Wangamati was governor of Bungoma County before the last general election.
According to the youthful Senator ,the senate is also investigating the alleged misapropriation of KSh350 million that was allocated to the Wangamati scholarship program, a pet project of the former governor to provide scholarships to needy students in Bungoma County from 2018 to 2022.
Wakoli also claimed that contractors who provided services to the Wangamati regime have not been paid up to now despite the fact that the county government received funds from public coffers.
This comes after the Wangamati family received a blow after the government demolished two storey buildings erected by the family on public land(Masinde Muliro stadium land) .
They were crashed down by government bulldozers to pave way for the rehabilitation of the Masinde Muliro Stadium despite the fact that he had moved to court to stop the demolition.
Masinde Muliro Stadium will be used by the government to host this year’s Madaraka Day celebrations slated for June 1.
Wangamati had last week claimed that the demolition was orchestrated by political opponent’s led by the Speaker of the National assembly Dr. Moses Francis Masika Wetang’ula.
However Bungoma County assembly Speaker Stephen Wamalwa defended the Speaker of the National assembly against Wangamati’s accusations saying that Wetang’ula has no role to play in defending land .
“When former governor accuses Wetang’ula of the demolition of his storey building at Kanduyi market, I wonder why he does that because he is the one who asked governor Lusaka to implement the taskforce report on grabbed public land without knowing that it will touch on him,” he added.
