While Homa Bay Governor Gladys positioned herself as the ‘Glamour Girl’ of Luo Nyanza politics, her administration is coming under scrutiny for “specialising in hosting events”, but doing little on the ground to eradicate debilitating poverty, protection of rights of young girls and women against ‘chronic’ sexual exploitation and infrastructure development.

Instead, critics and allies alike accuse Governor Wanga of being the face of corruption in the lake region county with untapped high blue economy potential, tourism, agriculture and maritime transport, among other opportunities.  

On the ground, the governor is also accused of ‘cavorting’ with President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to shield herself against integrity and leadership credential questions. But the veneer is peeling off and her alleged incompetence becomes a public concern.

This is after contractors who provided goods and services to Homa Bay county government petitioned the devolved unit to settle over Ksh480 million ($3,709,440) they are owed.

Chair of Homa Bay County Contractors Association Collins Omito said the debts accumulated by the county government date back to 2013. They said that were it not for entrenched corruption and wanton looting in the governor’s office, the monies would have been paid.

According to Omito, the regional government has been procrastinating on settling the pending bills. The chairperson spoke told the Press in Homa Bay Town on Sunday that Wanga is indifferent to their pleas. He was accompanied by the association’s Secretary General Kennedy Aloso, Organising Secretary Peter Brown and Patron Peter Oyata.

The officials gave the county government one-week ultimatum to pay them. Aloso lamented that the county government was non-committal on when it is going settle the debts.

“We have pushed for the recovery of our debts but our efforts have not yielded fruit. Sometimes they settle small amounts for merchants while others are not paid at all,” Aloso said.

The contractors said the situation had made life difficult for them because they were defaulting on loans they borrowed to fund the contracts. Omito said that some of them are unable to pay their children’s school fees and feed their families.

“We are giving the county government one week to pay us or give a clear commitment on how we will be paid,” Omito said.

They appealed to Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang to intervene and push the county government to pay them.

“Kajwang is very vocal on issues affecting other counties but he is quiet on ours. We appeal to him to intervene and help us as the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee in the Senate,” Brown said.

However, Homa Bay County Executive for Finance Solomon Obiero accused the contractors of misleading the public that the county government was not paying them. He said they had been paying contractors promptly whenever they received capitation funds from the national government since Governor Gladys Wanga came to office in 2022.

“We have been paying both past pending bills and the current ones hence it is a lie for anyone to say they have not been paid since 2013,” Obiero denied the accusation.

He said they inherited pending bills of over Sh1.5 billion when they came to power in 2022 but their administration had reduced the bills significantly.

“There is no government that does not have pending bills. We will engage the contractors so that we address their grievances,” Obiero added.

• Tell Media / KNA report by Davis Langat