Speaker Kenneth Lusaka is on the ballot to try and recapture the Bungoma County Gubernatorial Seat having lost it in 2017 to H.E Wycliffe Wafula Wangamati. His loss was attributed to a well coordinated multi-prong attack led by Senator Moses Wetangula who accused Lusaka of looting the Bungoma County coffers dry. Of the many scandals, the infamous "Wheelbarrow Scandal" was Lusaka's Achilles' heel. However unbeknown to many, the Wheelbarrow scandal was a pale to a litany of of others. Among them was a tender won by one Rigathi Gachagua to supply medical equipment to Bungoma County Referral Hospital.
On 24th December, 2014 (the eve of Christmas Day), Encartar Diagnostics Ltd (owned by Rigathi Gachagua indirectly) delivered an invoice of Sh123,175,000 to Bungoma County. This was slightly under one and half years after the 2013 elections.
According to the invoice, Encartar Diagnostics Ltd, indicated that it had supplied:
(1) Anaesthetic machines
(2) Advanced anaesthetic machines
(3) Operating tables
(4) Theatre Operating light
(5) Delivery Beds
(6) Modular Patient Monitor
(7) Multi-Parameter Patient Monitor
(8) Intensive Care Ventilator
(9) Hospital Beds and Mattresses.
To date, none of the aforementioned items have been delivered.
Interestingly, the tender was awarded in 2014 but was financed over three financial years. The first payment of Sh40 million was made on December 24, 2014, while the last payment of Sh19 million was made on April 15, 2016.
As you may be aware, this is one of the more than 12 such transactions that the DCI is investigating. Three issues have been raised thus:
(1) Was the process manipulated to award to Encartar?
(2) Was the tender price exaggerated?
(3) Were the equipment actually delivered?
An interesting thing from the above document is payments being made on Christmas eve. Most Government offices are shut by then. Many prolific scandals in Kenya were committed on such days when everyone else is away.
Rigathi Gachagua and Kenneth Lusaka were both District Officers (DOs). In fact Lusaka has been heard saying that they were deployed on the same date. Several years down the line, when Lusaka vied for the Bungoma Gubernatorial seat in 2013, Rigathi Gachagua supported him both materially and financially. Rigathi donated a truck/campaign caravan to Lusaka. Could this fictitious payment have been compensation for Rigathi's investment in the campaign? At the very least, Lusaka and Rigathi Gachagua owe the people of Bungoma and by extension Kenya at large an explanation on this scandal that stinks to the high heavens. Had the above equipment been supplied, Bungoma County could not have lost so many lives nor could we be having our people seek medical attention in neighbouring Counties on ailments that could easily be managed at the Bungoma County Referral Hospital.
Fast forward, none other than Senator Moses Wetangula has hit the ground running in support of Lusaka's second bid for Bungoma gubernatorial seat. Having seriously decampaigned Lusaka in 2017, Senator Moses Wetangula owes the people of Bungoma an explanation. What changed?
In my honest opinion, there is absolutely nothing to be excited about Lusaka's candidacy.
