Samboja vows no let-up in push to dissolve county

Seth Onyango @SethManex

Taita Taveta Governor Granton Samboja has vowed not to relent in his push for dissolution of the County government over a budget impasse with the County Assembly.

Speaking on Wednesday after a meeting with ODM leader Raila Odinga failed to unlock the deadlock, he said: “I will not engage in any dialogue, because of the insincerity of the opposite said” 

Samboja said he had already collected over 40,000 signatures to call for fresh elections in the county.

“What is left is to  prepare the petition and submit it to the President. Then it will be up to the him to decide according to his wisdom what happens,” he said.

Samboja’s meeting with Raila at the latter’s Capitol Hill office in Nairobi came after the former Prime Minister  last week called for talks between the MCAs to resolve the stalemate. 

Fresh election

“I appeal to the aggrieved parties to reach a consensus. If no solution is found, then there is no other option  but to dissolve the county government and go back for fresh elections. This should serve as an example to other counties,” he said.

Samboja’s push for dissolution of the devolved unit is aimed at countering the insistence by MCAs to allocate themselves more than Sh800 million for ward development.

Meanwhile, Raila decried that counties were spending so much cash on recurrent expenditure at the expense of development.

He noted that 70 per cent of their budgetary allocations was being spent on salaries and other administrative issues, with development getting a paltry 30 per cent.