Siaya County Assembly votes to impeach besieged deputy governor

Siaya, Monday, May 29, 2023

KNA by Philip Onyango 

Siaya County Assembly members has overwhelmingly voted in support of a motion that seeks to impeach deputy governor, William Oduol who has been at logger heads with his boss, James Orengo. 

A special sitting of the assembly saw 38 members of the county assembly vote in favour of the motion while only one member voted against it during the voting that was conducted through secret ballot. 

Moving the motion, East Asembo ward member, Gordon Onguru accused Oduol of gross violation of the constitution, abuse of office and gross misconduct. 

Onguru accused the deputy governor of interference with procurement process through acts of bid rigging, adding that Oduol had interfered with the procurement contractors for various road projects and supply and delivery of certified seeds and fertilizer contrary to the provisions of the public procurement act. 

The East Asembo legislator further accused the deputy governor of coercing the head of county procurement unit to give him raw evaluation report for the tender for supply and delivery of certified seeds. 

The motion further accused Oduol of bulldozing county government officers to renovate and furnish his office outside the approved budgetary provisions. 

On misuse of public resources, the deputy governor is accused of causing the county government to illegally facilitate him and three other officers to attend ICPAK meeting in Mombasa last November though he was attending the event in his personal capacity. 

The deputy governor was further accused of misleading the public by giving false information contrary to the leadership and integrity act, 2012. 

“Moral and ethical requirements of any state officer dictates that he or she must always accurately and honestly represent information to the public” read the motion. 

Onguru said that the deputy governor misled members of the public that funds allocated towards completion of Siaya stadium had been reallocated in the supplementary budget of the financial year 2022/2023. 

“However, it was confirmed that the allocation had been enhanced and not removed as the deputy governor had claimed,” said the mover of the motion. 

Oduol was further accused of misleading members of the public and the assembly that there was discriminatory budgetary allocation to disadvantage Alego /Usonga constituency, allegations which turned out as false as it was later confirmed that the constituency was the highest beneficiary of development funding. 

He was further accused of misleading the county assembly that county secretary, Joseph Ogutu was forced to resign and that the Siaya county bursary allocation committee was riddled with corruption that saw needy students being left out. 

Immediately after the vote, majority leader, Edwin Otieno moved a motion seeking to establish a special committee to investigate and report on the grounds of impeachment of the deputy governor. 

The assembly approved the 14 member special committee; with speaker George Okode ruling that the committee will have to report back to the house within 10 days. 

Okode called on the committee to work within the relevant laws and accord Oduol a fair hearing. 

Oduol and Orengo have been at logger heads for the last three months, with the former accusing Governor Orengo of condoning corruption. 

Yesterday, Orange Democratic Movement, Siaya county branch kicked out Oduol from the party and urged him to resign from his position. 

Courtesy ; K. N. A