Light moment as senators marvel at impeached Siaya DG’s ‘Ksh1.1M office chair’
By Wycliffe Nyamasege, June 22, 2023
An office chair at the centre of the impeachment of Siaya Deputy Governor William Oduol was on Thursday, June 22, 2023, presented before a Senate committee probing the ouster.
There was a light moment in the House as the 11-member special Senate committee marvelled at the chair said to have cost the taxpayer a whopping Ksh1,120,000.
Several members of the committee surrounded the armchair with some taking turns to sit on it to check its comfort levels as they made jokes and marvelled at how it was so simple yet so expensive.
“You know we were told it was the lowest bid. You know it can fit the two of you, maybe you and your spouse. Now you have all seen it. That is the chair they were (talking about),” a member of the Committee said as he asked his colleagues to try the chair.
Oduol is accused of spending Ksh18 million of the taxpayers’ money to renovate his office for personal comfort after assuming office in August last year.
Siaya MCA’s case
Siaya MCAs yesterday told the Senate that Oduol spent Ksh1.1million to procure a “presidential” chair in disregard of the procurement plan.
The MCAs said the funds would have been channelled to support learners through the county’s bursary programme.
“The county had spent Ksh18 million of the taxpayers’ monies for the personal comfort of an individual. We will demonstrate that Ksh18 million constitutes 20 per cent of the county’s bursary allocation,” the lawyer for the MCAs Willis Otieno told the House.
“He ignored the County Procurement plan in demanding for the renovation of his office, to make it sound proof and purchase a presidential table and chair.”
In his submissions on Thursday, Oduol denied claims that he bought one chair for Ksh1.12 million, insisting that there was a typo in the cost of the seat and the price was for three chairs, not one.
Oduol, in his opening remarks yesterday, described himself as a hunter turned hunted for drawing the attention to mismanagement of county resources by Governor James Orengo and his junior staff.
The DG, who was impeached on June 8 after a messy fallout with Orengo, will know his fate on Friday.