Only 21 of Mombasa County’s 47 public health facilities were fully functional in January, an audit by the office of Mombasa Senator Mohammed Faki shows.
“There is even a stalled health facility in Shonda, Likoni, which has been turned into a residential unit by a vagabond family, despite millions of shillings having been pumped into it,” Hassan Mbangwe, the Changamwe coordinator on the oversight committee, said.
Senator Faki said the audit report covers the 2022-23, 2023-24 and the current 2024-25 fiscal years because senators had no oversight fund to carry out earlier audits.
For more than 13 years, senators were fighting for the oversight fund and when it was finally accepted, nominated senators went to court, saying they were left out of the process.
“We didn’t do any report for the last two years because of the nominated senators’ case. They held tight but finally loosened up,” Faki said.
He said oversight committee chairman Ibrahim ‘Babangida’ Khamis said the report is not a means to ridicule or attack the county government but to point out areas that need improvement so residents get the services they deserve.
“We are all Mombasa residents and we all want the county to be the best. We all live in Mombasa and want the best for Mombasa. If any one of you has any other idea about this, then you got it wrong,” Babangida said.
They spoke at the official launch of the report on Monday at a hotel in Mombasa CBD. It was attended by five Mombasa county executives, MCAs and civil society members.
Mbangwe said some health facilities, such as the Shika Adabu dispensary, have no security personnel and no boundary wall, exposing drugs to the risk of theft, and endangering patients and staff.
“Last year, thieves broke into the facility and stole drugs and medical equipment,” he said.
In the education sector, the report revealed, construction of some ECD projects such as the Digirikani and Chaani centres, have stalled for longer than a decade.
Some schools in the county bursary scheme did not receive the standard Sh5,000 per child, despite being listed as beneficiaries, according to the report.
On social halls, the report revealed, Kisauni does not have any social hall and depends on the Kadongo football ground for activities.
“When it rains, things fall apart,” Mbagwe said.
However, education executive Mbwarali Kame said the executive wrote a letter to Senator Faki on April 11, asking for two weeks to respond to all issues raised in the audit report.
“The governor has requested two weeks to deliver all the matters and report to your office,” he told Faki.
Kame said the executive will come up with its own report later.
“This is not the final report. We as the CECs have not responded to anything in the report. It is the oversight committee, which has gone to the ground and seen the shortfalls,” he said.
“We have our own response but we are waiting for our team leader, who is the governor, to respond to the office of the senator.”
County youth affairs executive Ken Ambani said without oversight, the county cannot achieve its goals.
“The senator is doing something constructive. But it is also true it has to start from the MCAs. The assembly should be very strong and deal with us perpendicularly, as it should be,” Ambani said.
Assembly speaker Aharub Khatri said Faki has been an integral part of the assembly’s oversight of the executive.
He said last year the county assembly’s budget was cut by Sh72 million, thereby undermining some of the county’s oversight work.
Khatri accused governors of having a hand in the cutting of the budgets to weaken the oversight activities of assemblies.
“I raised questions and talked to the senator and governor, because it is impossible the budget reached the Senate after passing through all offices, only to be suddenly slashed,” he said.
“Will there be any oversight there? Please look into that issue, senator, because without resources here, we cannot properly oversight.”
The speaker said all entities have a responsibility to ensure the Mombasa public gets the services they deserve because they pay taxes.
“I am the leader of the assembly, yes, but I cannot grab all MCAs by the neck and tell them what to do. All know their responsibility,” Khatri said.
He said the assembly works closely, even with the civil society to ensure all is well in Mombasa.
