Showcasing Homa Bay's

By Irine AnyangoIt is deeply surprising that a well-funded and technically competent institution such as the Office of the Controller of Budget (CoB) could commit such a glaring error of commission , misleading the entire nation that Homa Bay County Government operates more than 500 unauthorized bank accounts.The CoB has since admitted the mistake (Citizen Digital, Kenyans.co.ke), but the damage caused by such sensational misreporting cannot be ignored.The Facts About Homa Bay’s AccountsContrary to the CoB’s initial report, Homa Bay County Government directly manages only eight accounts:Five Special Fund Accounts: Mortgage & Emergency Fund, Bursary Fund, Liquor Licenses Fund, and Facility Improvement Fund, among others.Three Core Accounts: One for Own Source Revenue collection and two salary accounts.That is the full extent of what the Homa Bay County Treasury operates.Every devolved health facility in Homa Bay — from level 2 dispensaries to referral hospitals — maintains their own account, as do Technical and Vocational Colleges (TVCs). However, these accounts are run by the individual institutions, not by the County Treasury.The same applies nationally and in other counties. While the Ministry of Education itself directly manages few central accounts, each of the 23,831 primary schools and over 10,000 secondary schools in Kenya runs at least two accounts of their own. By that logic, one could claim the Ministry of Education “operates over 200,000 accounts,” which is clearly misleading.The same principle applies in Homa Bay. The existence of hundreds of facility-level accounts cannot be used to claim the County Treasury operates hundreds of unauthorized accounts.By inflating the number of accounts supposedly run by Homa Bay County, the CoB’s error has handed political detractors a weapon to malign Governor Gladys Wanga’s administration. This is especially unfortunate at a time when Homa Bay is being recognized for:Strong budget absorption and prudent spending (as reflected in Auditor General reports).Successful rebranding as a tourism and MICE destination.Visible progress in service delivery across health, education, and infrastructure.Errors of this magnitude raise important questions whether this is simply a lapse in technical accuracy, or a hidden hand keen on puncturing the momentum of one of Kenya’s most progressive county governments?Governor Wanga has lifted Homa Bay from the list of shame and placed it firmly among the top-performing counties. That success, however, unsettles certain political actors. It is not lost on the people of Homa Bay that attempts to tarnish her record are likely to intensify as her star continues to rise.The admission of error by the Controller of Budget should serve as a cautionary tale. Homa Bay County does not operate hundreds of accounts. It manages only a handful, as the law requires. The rest belong to independent institutions under devolved functions, just as schools and hospitals nationwide maintain their own accounts.As citizens, we must separate fact from political spin. Homa Bay is on the right track, and no amount of misreporting should derail the county’s journey towards unlocking its full potential.The writer is a concerned citizen of Homa Bay

By Sitna OmarIt was all smiles as Early Childhood Development (ECD) children across the eight sub counties of Homa Bay yesterday received 163 newly built classrooms.The classrooms which are fully equipped with modern facilities were constructed at a cost of Sh1.6 million through a Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) programme dubbed Ondoa Kaunda.Governor Gladys Wanga who spoke in Asumbi Mixed Comprehensive School after the handover ceremony said her aim is to promote quality education so that learners can study in a clean and dignified environment that upholds their right to quality education.“The foundation of our children’s future lies in the quality of education they receive in their early years at school,” she said.Launched on July 10 at God Ndonyo in Kibiri Ward, Ondoa Kaunda is an economic stimulus programme that embraces labour-based approach and not the conventional contracting approach.“We sent money to all the 163 schools and the locals ran the programme themselves. They managed it locally using the local labour and the local hardware and completed it within the stipulated period of 100 days,” she implied.Before the year 2022, there were only 20 dilapidated ECD classrooms across the county but Wanga said it was after witnessing the sorry state of the learning facilities that her administration initiated the Ondoa Kaunda programme to provide the young children with quality and modern classes.Within the two years after her ascent to power, the governor has established a total of 243 classrooms all over the county with plans to construct 257 more by the end of her five years in the office.