'Stop the lies': Agitated Senator Onyonka lectures Kenya Kwanza over governance model

The opposition-allied legislator was irked during an interview on Citizen TV after Kacheliba MP Titus Lotee opined that the Kenya Kwanza regime is the first one, since devolution was introduced, to disburse funds to counties on time.

"For us to insinuate that the Kenya Kwanza government has failed to release money on time to counties is all hypocrisy because I can even ask the panelists here at when did you see the governments that have been steering devolution release funds to counties on time," said Lotee.

Onyonka spared the MP no further time to argue his statement as he interjected with a bold lecture on how the government has grown fond of distancing itself from the failures of Uhuru Kenyatta's rule, yet they were still part of it under the Jubilee-led government.

"Can I answer that? That government is where you've been. You guys have been in Jubilee. President William Ruto was the vice president of Uhuru for 10 years, he was the one chairing IBEC what are you saying?" he posed.

"Your government has been in power for 15 (13) years...ah..tsk...these things are childish and we are sitting here discussing nonsense. That's your government we have never been in government who should be asked? We are not kids anymore we are just sick of these lies." 

Onyonka further accused the government of what he termed as perennial lies yet they waste public money excesses yet the state of the nation is dwindling.

"We have a problem with our inputs, fuel, electricity, policy and management. The problem with our country is basically managing the resources we have and making sure that we don't steal the way we are stealing," Onyonka said.

"The cost of living is not an issue that we just laugh at. Right now people cannot take their children to schools, NHIF is a problem. We are basically mismanaging our country then we just keep lying about it. Everything I see is this haphazard movement of activities and meetings and when they get tired they talk about Uhuru. Can you govern?" 

After the heightened tensions, Lotee resumed position at the hot seat as he tried to defend his now provocative sentiments.

He argued that the delays in disbursing funds to counties in 2023 were occasioned by government's ambitious plan to offset the nation from its debt burden and not borrow more loans.

"This is a new government coming from the Uhuru government and they came up with policies on how they are going to access international funding. What they have said is that they are not going into debt taking money from loans so that they can finance development," he said.

"So they were trying to consolidate resources and at that time, the counties lacked a little bit of money. The delays are there but not as much as the delays that were."

Before the start of the 2023/24 financial year in June, there was a standoff between the national government and the counties for about 4 months over delayed funds.

Meanwhile, the cabinet has directed the Treasury to release Ksh.10 billion to counties to help mitigate the effects of the ongoing El Nino rains.