hear hear

I should get the security guard at our office gate to stand behind me during meetings, that should bring some awkwardness from my boss.

The AP has been demoted and transferred.

The Nairobi County Assembly will spend nearly Sh8 million to buy iPads for its 127 members in a bid to cut the cost of paper and reduce its carbon footprint, the budget team has said.

When you factor in the fact that out of the Sh8.8 billion which counties had allocated for local and overseas travel in 2013/2014 budgets, by December they had only spent Sh2.8 billion. The difference of Sh6billion is what MCAs have been in a frenzy to spend flatout since January. They hope to clear this amount if times and destinations allow, by end of this month, when the financial year closes. Cheserem yesterday cited several county assemblies, among them Lamu, Kisumu, Kakamega, Kwale and Makueni, which are sending large delegations of MCAs to countries in the Far East and America. He gave the example of Makueni where all MCAs are set to tour Singapore this week. “We are informed for instance that Makueni County Assembly has only spent about 55 per cent in their budget and this trip is apparently meant to ensure these funds are utilised,” Cheserem told journalists in Nairobi. Apart from Makueni, he said all MCAs from Kisumu were in Nairobi en-route to Israel, while their counterparts from Kakamega were headed to Malaysia. Those from Kwale were Singapore-bound, ostensibly on benchmarking missions. All MCAs from Lamu are also planning a trip to the US later this month. “MCAs are rushing to Israel to see the birth place of Jesus Christ which is okay but obviously not prudent use of public resources as the Constitution demands,” Cheserem explained, adding that the MCAs had resorted to blackmailing hapless governors and Treasury chiefs in the counties with threats of impeachment if they failed approve the trips.