The Western Development Initiative Association (WEDIA) Saturday tasked the county, national and corporate institutions and their leaders to check on any gross mismanagement and pilfering of funds and resources entrusted in their care.
Chairman Joseph Barasa said he will take action on any official who fails to be forensically accountable for the funds and resources under their management for public and shareholder or investors’ interests.
“WEDIA is there to fight and protect the interests and lives of ordinary Kenyans from any predator. What is theirs must remain theirs to the last coin, be it for development programs, welfare, education, service provision and investments in the private sector.”
“Today it is very sad that 10 years after the promulgation of the new constitution in 2010, the taxpayers, investors and even savers have continued and continue to lose billions of shillings annually through entrenched corrupt cartels and personalities both in the public and private sectors and WEDIA is going to fight that to the bitter end,” he said.
He spoke during the WEDIA Annual General Meeting at a Nairobi hotel where he was elected chairman of the organization after serving it for many years as its vocal vice chairman.
The meeting also saw the election of Aggrey Noah Okunyanyi as Secretary General, Moses Andati as Treasurer, and Collins Kweyu as its Organising Secretary among other office bearers.
He said year after year the country’s Auditor General Documents hundreds of billions of shillings un-accounted in audits conducted in public institutions, government ministries, state corporations and many others but usually, no tangible serious actions are taken and the cycle repeats itself year after year.
“The same story is repeated year after year by highly reputable audit companies releasing their cursory not even forensic audit reports of many companies in the private sector in which many ordinary Kenyans have saved their lifetime earnings in hundreds of billions of shillings, but lost it under highly questionable circumstances,” he said.
Okunyanyi urged President William Ruto to crack the whip immediately after the Auditor General releases her annual audit reports so that the ordinary Kenyan can benefit from his tax money released by the national government for development and other purposes at the both national and county levels.
“As a matter of fact we kindly request President to Ruto support our initiative even if there is the EACC, our work will go a long way since we have total faith and trust from the members of the public. We also want him to leave a legacy that no other President has ever done for this country since independence.”
Okunyanyi said for starters WEDIA is going to blast its focus on county governments and corporate institutions in the Western Kenya region as just phase one of a major national initiative that will change the lives of Kenyans.
He also put on notice those sugar Millers who were fond of exploiting Sugarcane farmers saying WEDIA shall not spare them either.
“We shall work closely with our farmers especially those in the Sugarcane sector to ensure that they enjoy their sweat,” said Okunyanyi.
For decades WEDIA has established its reputation as a fighter of public interests especially small-scale farmers across the spectrum led by those in the troubled sugar industry, the Small to Medium Scale business community, education, and many others.
