POLITICAL COMEBACK: ‘The people have rejected Lenku and are hungry for change’
Former governor accuses Lenku of neglecting incomplete projects when he took over the office, with vandals having a field day over the years.
Jubilee gubernatorial aspirant in Kajiado County and former governor Dr David Nkedianye has promised to revive the incomplete Ngong Stadium project should he win the August 9 contest.
He will also rejuvenate the public library project in Kajiado, among other incomplete projects that were left over from his first stint as governor from 2013 to 2017, when he lost the seat to incumbent Governor Joseph ole Lenku.
Nkedianye accuses Lenku of neglecting incomplete projects when he took over the office, with vandals having a field day over the years. He is however hopeful that the projects can be revived.
Saying that he had seen government projects abandoned for even 10 or 15 years only to be revived by a subsequent regime, Nkedianye told the Kajiado Star that he would carry out feasibility studies to revive the stalled projects.
In a wide-ranging interview, excerpts of which have been published by this newspaper, Dr Nkedianye said the people have rejected Lenku and are hungry for change. This, he said, partly informed his decision to join decamp from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to Jubilee so as to hold joint primaries with the incumbent and have one candidate under the Azimio umbrella.
Subsequently, Lenku decamped from Jubilee and joined ODM, where he was received by party leader Raila Odinga and granted an ODM ticket.
“The work that I had started was completely neglected. I had set a good foundation on which I will continue to build,” said the former governor.
Enumerating the many projects he undertook during his tenure, Nkedianye said it was shameful for patients to be sent from public hospitals to private clinics. “Under my leadership, our hospitals will have both doctors and medicines. At the moment, doctors are not paid their allowances. They don’t even have basic equipment, including gloves and sanitizers. People are given prescriptions to purchase medication from private chemists.”
Part of the problem, he disclosed, was non-payment of bills due to the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa), which made it impossible for the county to continue obtaining drugs from the government agency. He promised to address the matter and clear the pending bills.
Dr Nkedianye is expected to clinch the Jubilee ticket and thereafter face Lenku and whoever clinches the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) ticket in a three-horse race that is certain to make the Kajiado contest one of the most competitive in the country.
