Harrison Kivisu
Civil society groups in Mombasa are up in arms following alleged use of public money by Mombasa County Assembly members to travel to Egypt to watch the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations matches.
Nine MCAs are alleged to be on a one-month ‘bench marking’ fully-paid for trip to the North African nation at the taxpayers cost of Sh3.2 million even as the state of sports facilities in the county remain wanting.
Haki Africa, Human Rights Agenda, Manyatta Youth Entertainment, CBO and Pwani Social Justice Centre now want the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to open a probe on alleged misuse of public resources at the county government.
Misplaced priorities
The MCAs are allegedly receiving an allowance of $331 (Sh33,000) each per day while air tickets are said to have cost $500 (Sh50,000) per head among other expenses.
Fadhil Makarani (Port Reitz), Ali Sarriff (Tononoka), Abrar Omar (Kongowea), Fahad Kassim (Mjambere), Charles Kitula (Freretown), Athman Shebe (Jomvu), Ahmed Hamisi Nyundo (Majengo), Mwalimu Mbushe (Shika Adabu) and Tobias Samba (Tudor) are the nine MCAs in question.
“One wonders why MCAs would attend a benchmarking event for an event that concerns the country. What lessons are they going to learn that will benefit the county?” posed Manyata Youth Entertainment Executive Director Nicholas Sogora.
“We have teams which cannot afford to participate in various events. Mombasa stadium stalled long time ago and has turned into a forest. How was all these ignored and instead millions used for MCAs to watch Afcon,” posed Haki Africa Executive Director Hussein Khalid.
