A section of Kericho County Government staff together with some members of the public are mad at their Governor Prof. Paul Chepkwony for allegedly tying a note to his staff before sending her on a two-year fully paid maternity leave.
The Chief Officer in charge of Preventive and Promotive Health, a docket created under the ministry, if health according to sources, is the governors’ second wife and the new County’s first lady.
Months after the Governor created the post explicitly for her, the lady took a fully-paid maternity leave and now two years down the line has never reported back to the office yet she enjoys all privileges which include full-pay of salaries and allowances set for Executive Officers.
The first-lady has been spending her two-year maternity leave at a lavish home in Nairobi’s Karen suburb that the governor is allegedly bought for her while the first wife is now made a housewife looking after the children at a self-effacing village in Kericho.
Being a pharmacist, her post was earlier named pharmaceutical department before it was changed to Preventive and Promotive Health where she works as its Chief Officer alongside the former District Hospital Med Sup David Ekuwam who has been covering her up while she is away.
Immediately after the County Boss disapproved claims that he was cohabiting with Deputy Governor Susan Kikwai, all consideration shifted to Dr. Winnie who is said to have received all forms of enticement which include brand cars, lucrative job, and an expansive land in Eldoret where he plans to set a permanent rural home for her besides the Karen home.
Sources who are part of the County’s Executive Committee, naked that such post did not exist prior to the coming of Ms. Rotich who initially a sweetheart before she was promoted to a beloved wife after the affair became ripe.
After relocation to Karen, the Chief Officer cum lover outstood the first wife, and the Governor made quick plans of exchanging vows in a traditional marriage held at a discrete location though they were not given a marriage certificate.
“As soon as he created the pharmaceutical docket under the Health Ministry, the Governor appointed Dr. Winnie Rotich as its Chief Officer, and placed a diligent expert near her in order to cover her absconded duties. Again in various meetings, he couldn’t pelt his affection for her,” a member of Executive Committee said
An informer from his administration who has urged the country’s security agencies to quickly investigate this case confides that even before she gave birth, the two love birds used to spend the better part of their weekends at their Karen home.
After she gave birth to a bouncy baby, Chepkwony officially settled Dr. Winnie at Karen and since then most of his County duties have been left to DG Susan Kikwai while the Governor spends three of the five working days in Nairobi.
He adds that “to add an insult into an injury, the office is now left vacant and nobody has been placed there in an acting capacity,”
“Any senior staff at the County can tell you that we have had freedom since the Governor finds no time around though it’s been characterized with minimal development records. He nowadays doesn’t call for frequent meetings and, sadly, we have not achieved much during this period” our bird said
Dr Winnie caught the governor’s eye because of her stunning beauty and well-off family background traced to Chepsir and Eldoret
Everybody in Kericho can tell you that nothing much has been achieved in this County since 2013. All the promises that the Governor made have all fictional and unattainable.
“He promised to upgrade health, build stadiums, fence Uhuru and Moi gardens, initiate pineapple and sweet potatoes factories, establish a university, import of malfunctioning ambulances and failed Court case against UK Government that has seen county funds wasted,” source said
Nowadays the boss is fully engaged in international issues such as Coronavirus and locusts as fictional research with no local preparedness.
The local media practitioners confirming the claims attested that indeed the new wife still gets a full payment of salaries and allowances equally to other executive members.
One who sought anonymity said, the governor has taken locals for fools who have been victims of unfulfilled promises meant for seasonal political survival.
“We call upon the EAC and DCI sleuths to investigate these claims, how can county funds be wasted by paying a person who has not been working for the past two years,” a journalist questioned
To facilitate his trickery, he has strategically placed three CECs in critical posts where they assist him to make extra cash, run deals and manoeuvre both the social and economic traps.
However, in a recorded 20- minute phone call interview with County Post, the governor confirmed that the story had gone viral in the past, though the claims talked about Athi River but not Karen.
He confidently said he has been reported by more than two national paper though he says the story is false and clams labelled doesn’t add up alleging it could even be worse for him if the story linked her to a minor from a village n Kericho.
Eliciting discomfort from a section of his executive members, the governor is accused of favouring three CECS: Mr Barnabas Ngeno (lands), Charles Birech (Finance) and Patrick Mutai (Roads) who both are linked to being running his deals.
