For years, we have been accustomed to Senator Fatuma Dullo’s antics to fight the devolved governments over trivial issues. Not one of her ‘robust’ oversight shenanigans have ever borne any fruit other than taking Isiolo County a few steps back in the form of delayed project commencement.
In some cases, for example the highly anticipated issuance of title deeds during Gov. Mohamed Abdi Kuti’s stint had to be shelved because the Senator and the then so-called ‘pentagon’ band which also includes Rehema Jaldesa, Hassan Odha, Abshiro Halake and Abdi Koropu scandalized the exercise because of what many have described as ‘personal interests’.
Today, because of that selfish stunt, no one in Isiolo county has a title deed to their name. While in other neighbouring counties such as Wajir and Garissa, residents who were displaced as a result of the LAPSSET project were generously compensated, thousands in Isiolo living alongside the project route were left empty handed.
They lost their land and residences without any compensation. Senator Fatuma Dullo has never taken responsibility for this great loss that she has visited upon the people of Isiolo county.
As if that isn’t enough, the senator has now brazenly asked the senate to STOP the disbursement of funds to Isiolo County. Mind you, the funds she wants the senate/controller of budget to deny Isiolo county are monies meant for payment of salaries and renumeration of the thousands working for Isiolo county government, development funds, bursaries, pending bills et cetera.
Should the senate and the controller of budget agree(God forbid) to her senseless demands, then the ripple effect of such a move will be gargantuan and far-reaching. Make no mistake, the law is very clear on the powers of the senate and a supreme court ruling made it clear that the Senate has no express powers to stop the disbursement of funds to devolved units.
What is even more unsettling about senator Dullo’s innuendos is that the reasons she wants fund disbursement to Isiolo county stopped is an issue that has nothing to do with the current administration of Governor Guyo Abdi Ibrahim.
Gov. Guyo’s administration has been given a clean bill of health by the Auditor General’s report and the Senate Public Accounts Committee(PAC), a committee that she is a ‘distinguished’ member of, in the period he has been in office, which is less than two years.
The burning question, therefore, is; why does the senator want to hurt the people of Isiolo by attempting this apparently selfish move that, if allowed, can only visit misery upon the multitudes who look up to the county government for their daily bread?
We know the answer to this; POLITICS! Senator Fatuma Dullo has been a political wheeler-dealer in Isiolo County longer than any other wheeler-dealer, twelve years to be exact.
It is a well known fact that Dullo has, for years, been used by various powers that be to influence regime change in Isiolo County using her ‘oversight’ role as a camouflage to scandalize other elected leaders.
As a result of this, the Senate is losing credibility among the majority of Isiolo people, including her own supporters, for the overreaching demands that the senator has made which they know that, if allowed, will end up having far-reaching consequences on the local economy.
Senator Dullo has established herself as a grand crusader of anti-devolution. For the record, it is not just Isiolo county that she has sought to stop funds from coming to.
She infamously voted against having more funds being disbursed to the devolved governments; an issue that led to her shouting match with the distinguished opposition senator Edwin Sifuna, a minority whip, who openly called her out, to her own admission, for denying the devolved governments an opportunity to get more funds from the exchequer.
This would have gone a long way in giving the county governments, who have been crying for more funds from the central government since the inception of devolution, more funds to be spared for development projects, bursaries, employment of health staff among other things.
All she had to do was vote ‘yes’ to allow more funds for devolution in the budget but she sought not to have more funds being disbursed to the county governments.
Because of her action, the 47 devolved units in Kenya are getting less money than they should from the central government. That is why this isn’t just about Isiolo County.
Should her wishes be heeded, it means that less money or no money at all will be disbursed to Isiolo. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out the ramifications of such a scenario.
The economy of Isiolo, just like all the other devolved units, are usually powered by the allocation from the central government. This will mean that multitudes will be unable to pay their debts, some children will have to stay at home for lack of school fees, the mama mbogas and the bodaboda riders, some of whom are compensated monthly by folks working in the county governments will suffer the most.
Will the cessation of disbursement of funds to Isiolo hurt the governor? Certainly not! He is and already has been a man of means. His salary and those of the senior employees working for the county will not be affected by this. This is a clear indicator that the war is not on the governor but on the people of ordinary people of Isiolo County.
Some local pundits I engaged in the process of compiling this piece have intimated to me that the senator’s major concern is why the governor’s popularity remains at an all-time high despite her spirited fights to malign his name with whatever that seems to come her way.
Others have also insinuated that while the senator doesn’t have the mettle to become a governor, she is being used by a well known local organization who for several election cycles have unsuccessfully tried to impose certain leaders on the people of Isiolo.
This was the script she used to weaken the former administration so that a certain leader could have a free ride to the highest seat in the land.
The senator’s dishonesty knows know bounds, she can lie to her community if it suits her. Most, perhaps, do not know that Dullo was a ‘classified project’ of this past general election in what has also exposed the dishonesty of the so-called BCE, especially towards Nuh Ibrahim, who is now the CEO of Sports.
Unknown to many, it was Hassan Odha and Rehema Jaldesa who conspired with Senator Dullo so that she could benefit from the DM and Waragu votes in exchange for her Yalle votes. The plan worked for her which is why the margin of her win was way bigger in contrast to the rest.
What the two BCE sub-mutineers did not want to happen was the win of one Nuh Ibrahim which they were afraid could tilt the scale in his favour of him becoming a future flag-bearer of the community, a scenario they both coveted.
Dullo, on the other hand, was already a train-wreck in matters Sakuye politics. By the end of 2021, her popularity among the Sakuye community was so diminished that she had reportedly even opted not run for it before things changed with Governor Kuti resignation from politics.
While many had expected BCE to actually endorse her for the senate post, this did not happen and so she resorted to her mercy-seeking tactics of ‘am being shunned because I am Sakuye’ leading many to vote for her in pity. What most Sakuyes didn’t know at the time was that she already had a considerable support from the BCE through underhand deals.
I bet that her win was a major reprieve for BCE who, themselves, were clearly ‘not feeling the vibe’ of the charismatic Nuh. A friend who has an inside knowledge of the organization has also intimated to me that the organization was clearly NOT pleased by his(Nuh) appointment to a state department.
What am trying so hard to demonstrate here is that the senator is a deeply dishonest and lewd personality who can go to any extent as long as she benefits. This must be stopped and the senator should not be allowed to play poker with Isiolo’s devolution dream.
The only way that the senator can be reigned in now is for the elders of Isiolo county drawn from all communities to prevail upon her to drop her vengeful and incessant tactics to hurt the people of Isiolo County.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and does not in any way represent the views of icbnews.co.ke or Waso Media Group Limited.
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