Tuesday, 01 March 2011 00:06 BY SAMUEL OTIENO
A row over the location of Kisumu County headquarters has emerged following sharp differences between elders and political leaders. Under the auspices of Nyakach Elder’s Development Forum, the elders said they had reached consensus with a section of politicians to have the headquarters within Nyakach Constituency.
The elders also said they have agreed with other constituencies within the county that the positions of Governor and Senator will be reserved for candidates from Nyakach constituency.
Led by chairman Odingo Okech and secretary Lazary Gome the elders formed a committee to defend their decision to the task force on implementation of devolved county governments at a hearing scheduled for next week.
However some politicians vehemently opposed the plans by the elders and urged area DC James Ntabo to trash the list of experts proposed by the elders.
Area MP Pollyns Ochieng, immediate former MP Peter Odoyo and politician Vincent Kodera said the elders were pushing for their own interests without the blessing of the residents.
The row comes barely a week after the Ministry of Public Works urged residents to quickly identify a location for the headquarters to allow construction work to commence. "The county government was created to devolve the resources and develop underdeveloped areas hence the headquarters which is an epicentre of all county activities should be located in underdeveloped areas for them to be developed," the elders said in their statement.
They said Kisumu was already developed as a city and should not be overwhelmed with others structures. The politicians however argued that the location of the county headquarters should not be debated by elders since they know nothing about its structures.
They cautioned the elders to avoid endorsing candidates for different slots in the county governance system saying it is locals who will decide based on his or her development agenda.
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