By Albert Nyakundi
It will be dramatic when Kiambu voters will chase away “their father” from their house in 2022.
Waititu aka Wakahare during the 2017 elections was a darling to the voters and all residents.
However, he is now a villain after promising Kiambu resident’s heaven on Earth which never came to be.
In his seventh month in office, Waititu embarked on fighting illicit brews in Kiambu County without a clear plan.
He met illicit brewers from Gatundu North constituency in 2018 where he negotiated with them so that they could join his fight against alcoholism.
He promised them county jobs and contracts.
Latter, he met religious leaders and residents from the constituency at Makwa shopping centre for a prayer rally meant to denounce alcoholism.
During the rally, Waititu asked the alcoholics present to register and start fighting alcoholism starting in Makwa and Galilee villages.
At least 50 people registered.
He told those who enrolled that their duty will be raiding chang’aa dens and clearing bushes as well as unblocking trenches along the roads.
They would at the end be paid Ksh 400 per day out of which Ksh 100 would cater for their compulsory breakfast and lunch.
The governor latter instructed me (Albert Nyakundi) where I was a member of his press team to increase the number to one hundred.
However a day later, more than two hundred people showed up at the meeting point, Makwa shopping centre.
I had strict instructions to stick to one hundred. I had to turn away the rest who were seemingly recovering from hangovers. They cursed me.
It later emerged that the governor had no clear budget to fight alcoholism in the county but used his position to bulldoze the initiative.
Many kept coming every morning to ask if there was a vacancy. I said no.
There was only Ksh 40 000 per day for this programme.
However, youths from across the county demanded to be enrolled in the programme which was dubbed Kaa Sober.
But there was neither a budget nor public participation to make the program legit.
The program was viewed by the youth as a job opportunity that not only Makwa youths deserved but all the county youths, probably as an appreciation for voting for Baba Yao.
A total of 3600 people were on the pay roll with more seeking to join, but, without a budget.
Interestingly every Sunday when the governor attended any thanksgiving ceremony for MCAs, it was a golden opportunity for residents to demand for enrollment in the programme.
At this point, residents started making noise and criticizing the initiative when the governor announced he was spending Ksh 2M daily to pay the youths in this programme.
This later rose to Ksh 2.7 Million daily. Residents across the county termed it a waste of public resources that could be channeled elsewhere to boost development.
The programme today has 5600 youths each pocketing Sh 400, a total of Ksh 2.6 Million daily.
The governor stopped paying the youths on a daily basis to a weekly basis. This changed again to a monthly basis and there were arrears for several months.
All this time the governor had been promising those in the programme county jobs and contracts to build county roads or any other development projects initiated by the county.
This is yet to happen even as the governor is planning to shelf the programme, not because the county is free of illicit brews or drugs, but because the programme is no longer sustainable!
Baba Yao had to find a perfect way to suspend the programme that had been giving him sleepless nights.
He did this by introducing and hiding behind vocational training which later turned out to be the worst idea he had ever thought off.
Albert Nyakundi,is a former member of Governor Waititu’s communication team. Tomorrow, we will bring you the story of how Waititu’s idea of enrolling more than 5,000 youths in vocational training institutions turned out to be a big joke.
