WITH A LIGHT TOUCH: Feud over expected payment of cash lands MCA in trouble

Fellow MCA Matayo stormed into my office the other day, a look of combat plastered on his usually amiable-looking face. I guessed it all this was to do with the delay of our salaries – I was wrong. He told me his ward administrator had refused him entry into the ward development office.

“Why?” I asked.

“Ati I have refused to allow him to attend the Devolution Conference at Eldoret. What do you think I should do?” Before I could process this, the agitated MCA declared, “I am going hire goons to storm into that office, kwani iko nini?”

I could not see the relationship between the ward development office and the Conference. In case you are not aware, the 1st Biennial Devolution Conference is scheduled for August 15 to 19, 2023 at Eldoret town. “Have you tried to understand why he wants to go there so badly?” I asked.

“Bwana Gwinso, you want me, a whole MCA, to plead with a mere ward admin? No way!” thundered Matayo. “Everybody knows we don’t have enough money to waste on a ward administrator’s luxuries!”

The more we talked, the better I understood my colleague. The ward admin was well aware that the funds from the national government were hitting the county accounts soon – so all this battle was for the control of their ward’s share, after all.

“So what would you like me to do?” I asked calmly.

“I have organized a group to storm the place and take over the office this afternoon. Come and join us. We must all fight against such injustices. And you never know when your admin will also block you from accessing the ward office. Leo kwangu, kesho kwako,” he breathed.

Now, I may hate injustice and related vices with all my heart, but I know better than join a rowdy mob in another ward to storm into an office.

So I excused myself saying I had a meeting with my own Ward Development Committee that afternoon.“I am sure we will finish early and join you. After all, injustice in your ward is injustice in the whole world. We won’t allow it!” I thundered and slammed my palm on the desk to drive the point home. This excited him even further.

“You see, Bwana Gwinso, that is the spirit. We should not allow a ward admin to interfere with our development. He wants me to fund his sherehe in Eldoret at the expense of development in our ward? Kwani who is he? I am ready to pay the ultimate price for the sake of my people!” He was now speaking with the animation of a politician addressing a protest rally. “Even if it means bringing down that office single-handedly, I will do it. Let them kill me if they want.”

“MCA Matayo, tuko pamoja,” I said. My friend left exuding confidence that I was with him to the hilt.
Later that afternoon, I received a distress phonecall from someone who identified himself as Matayo’s bodyguard. “Mheshimiwa, MCA Matayo wishes to see you immediately.”

The urgency in the tone made me stop whatever I was doing and rush to my colleague’s residence. I found him seated outside with the bodyguard. He was looking shaken.“What happened?” I asked.

“Bwana Gwinso, let the ward rep go to Eldoret,” he said, sounding beaten.
“What is it?” I asked, dying with curiosity.
“That fellow set thugs on me just when I was approaching the office.”

“Then?”

“Gwinso, hata kama ni wewe, would you have stood there?”

“I hope they did not hurt you.”

“No. Just a little pain here,” he said touching his backside.

“But where were your people?” I asked. “I mean the goons that you had organized?”

“They were not there.”

“Why?”

“They went to the wrong office. Someone misled them that I had been locked out of my own office. So they camped outside there, instead of the ward development office.”

“But you should have called them to join you?”

“I was about to call them when the goons pounced on me. The ward admin has outsmarted me, Bwana Gwinso.”

“A ward admin can’t do this to a whole MCA,” I said trying with considerable success to suppress laughter.
“Let him go to for the conference, as long as I have access to the development office. I wish you knew how much I stand to lose should I fail to get into that office,” my buddy said, almost in a sob.

“All the documents I need to secure the forthcoming funds are inside there.” I saw sense in what he was saying. Jipange kabla upangwe!