Kericho MCAs On The Spot Over Ksh 2 Million Expenditure At Ruto’s Weston Hotel

Kericho County Assembly has been put on the spot over a five-day training session on how to vet the nominees for Chief Officers positions at Weston Hotel, Nairobi.

Nation reported that assembly speaker Patrick Mutai sanctioned the training at the hotel owned by President William Ruto; costing Ksh 2.1 million in allowances.

This approval followed a memo from Majority leader Paul Chirchir requesting for facilitation of 37 MCAs at the hotel.

“In reference to standing order No.177, I hereby request for facilitation of all members of the county assembly to Nairobi (Weston hotel) from 15th November 22 to 20th November 22

“The purpose of the meeting is to conduct a pre-vetting of County Chief Officers nominees,” Chirchir said in the memo.

The training was approved the same day the MCAs were supposed to check in at the hotel.

For the training session, each MCA is entitled to Ksh 14,000 night out, in Nairobi while the Speaker draws Ksh 16,800.

This means that the MCAs will spend Ksh 2 million for the four nights they will spend at Weston Hotel and an additional Ksh 67,200 bringing the total amount to 2.1 million.

Notably, the aforementioned amount excludes allowances of committee clerks, drivers, and any other county assembly employees who accompanied the MCAs to Nairobi.

This also excludes money paid to facilitators of the training, the cost of hiring a hall at the premier hotel, food, drinks and fuel for motor vehicles.

Defending the training session, Chirchir mentioned that most MCAs are new to the house and they are yet to learn about proper vetting of nominees for various positions.

He mentioned that the issues were highlighted during recent vetting of county CECs.

“As a matter of fact, majority of the MCAs who were elected or nominated to the assembly are serving their first term in office and are yet to learn the ropes of vetting the nominees for the various positions forwarded to the house by the executive arm of government,” Chirchir said.