Article by Winnie Kabintie

“The country cannot afford to pay teachers” president Uhuru maintained during his state of the nation address the other day at house.

Well, as much as most Kenyans will agree with the fact that indeed our public wage bill is huge, that there is a blatant misplacement of priorities in the government is no longer debatable.

Apparently, even before president Uhuru’s lips could dry after uttering the above statement, the nation is waking up to a shocking revelation that the Meru County government has allegedly spent a whopping Sh 7.8 million on curtains for its general hospital.

The county government has ironically been complaining about lack of funds for purchasing medicines in the recent past.

Kenyans have taken to twitter under the hashtag #MeruGeneralHospitalCurtains to condemn the wastage of public funds.

“AUDIT UNDERWAY”

Meru Governor Peter Munya has responded to the claims by saying that an internal audit on procurement is underway and that the county’s health services executive will issue a statement on the matter later on today.

“A full internal audit of all procurement and payments is nearing completion. Anyone found complicit shall be held accountable 2/2,” Munya said via Twitter.

DEVOLVED CORRUPTION

Devolution is certainly costly and especially with the realization that as Kenyans ushered in the devolved system of governance, we also decentralized corruption.

The 7.8M expenditure on curtains comes in the wake of the Sh7M brick gate by Nyamira County, the Sh109,000 spent on a non-carcinogenic wheelbarrow by Bungoma County and the ridiculous monies spend by Kirinyaga County to pay a contractor who opened the county’s Facebook account (Sh2M) and Sh50M for the construction of a foot bridge.

Did I mention the Sh800m lost in the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal?

At this rate am thinking that perhaps teachers could consider a side hustle in selling curtains, wheelbarrows or better still running social media accounts.