Linda Mwananchi chides Ruto over alleged takeover of Trans Nzoia market

This comes as President Ruto sustains a tiff with the county's Governor George Natembeya over claiming credit for the construction of the new market.

Natembeya accuses President Ruto of hijacking and taking credit for county-funded or co-managed projects—such as the Masinde Muliro Market in Kitale—instead of letting county governments handle devolved health and trade functions.

Linda Mwananchi holds a similar argument, saying that President Ruto is exposing his administration's failure to have projects undertaken by the national government and is attempting to claim development projects for political mileage.

"Mr Ruto appears increasingly fearful of the clock, time having caught up with him without much to show for his four years in office. In just ten months, Kenyans will have the opportunity to relieve him of the responsibilities he has failed to discharge," he said.

"The fight by Governor Natembeya over the market represents a consistent push by devolution warriors and believers in the sanctity of the Constitution to block the forces of regression, led by Ruto, from eroding our constitutional gains and undermining the rule of law."

The movement said the President's involvement shows little regard for the limits of his mandate, holding that the function of building markets rests squarely with the devolved units, and the market in Kitale was indeed constructed by the Trans Nzoia County Government. 

The Constitution, part 2, paragraph 7(a) of the Fourth Schedule assigns trade development and regulation, including markets, to county governments.

Article 186(1) reinforces this allocation by providing that the functions of the two levels of government are those set out in the Fourth Schedule.

Further, section 5 of the County Governments Act, 2012, recognises the responsibility of county governments for functions assigned to them by the Constitution and legislation.

The Movement intimated that the project commissioned by the County Government of Trans Nzoia in FY 2017/18 at a projected cost of Ksh.874,280,383. 

It was later flagged by the Office of the Auditor General over audit queries on delayed completion of the project and time extension for completion, leading to a variation of the project cost.

Natembeya then took over office with the audit query in place and was directed to resolve the snag by the Senate County Public Investments Committee (CPIC), which he reportedly cleared.

"We wish to remind Ruto that just as the nation’s freedom heroes defeated colonialism and entrenched dictatorship, a new generation of liberation fighters will lead the country to the ballot to remove the regime he has put in place," the Movement noted.

Meanwhile, Governor Natembeya has said he will not be intimidated by threats to his security as his security detail was withdrawn.