Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka graduates in Waste & Waist Management

Bungoma governor Ken Lusaka now the butt of silly jokes due to his insatiable appetite for (inane) foreign trips.

Bungoma residents have taken to social media to hand their Governor Kenneth Lusaka a tasty serving of mockery and silly memes following his numerous (useless) trips abroad.

Early this month, Governor Ken Lusaka led a 12-member delegation among them his pastor Bishop James Murunga, business associate and brother to county Legal Advisor Caleb Kapten as well as a childhood friend and businessman called Tony, to the US to attend a four-day Waste Management workshop.

Also in the delegation was a bevy of beautiful women including the Governor’s wife, an MCA, a minister, a director and a secretary. What has infuriated the residents of this God-forsaken county is Lusaka’s apparent lack of care and concern for what really matters to his constituents. While he took on Facebook updating fans and supporters on what he was doing in the US, his Senator Moses Wetangula sneaked into the county referral hospital and unearthed a scam of monumental proportions.

A hospital had systemically been converted into death chambers due to inveterate neglect and inexcusable management and intolerable state of disrepair. The living shared beds with the dead for more than 24 hours. Doctors had taken a hike – perhaps looking for that extra coin in private clinics as their salary lay hoarded by the county Treasury.

Hospital corridors are populated with rungu-wielding guards in dirty rugs. At the time of Wetangula’s visit, only one bored, fatigued nurse was on duty with the task of attending to patients from across the county and beyond left into the hands of inexperienced and overworked interns from a poorly facilitated MTC in the neighborhood.

The wards stank to high heavens. Patients slept on beds uncovered with a handful lucky ones chancing upon shameful shreds of bed sheets and dusty blankets. Even sensitive areas like the threater had collected more than sufficient moulds of toxins from a dirty facility, leaky roof and rusty doors. All the ceiling in the life-saving facility does is generate dust. The result of this neglect was the SICK HOSPITAL as was aptly named by KTN.

All this while, the ratchet tsar was on Facebook detailing his excursions in the red light city of Las Vegas – a city of gamblers, drug dealers and flesh vendors! “My team and I have arrived in Detroit city from Las Vegas where we attended a 4 days (sic) workshop on waste management,”  Governor Ken Lusaka wrote in one of his numerous Facebook updates, oblivious of the mayhem at home. “This is a salient venture that if undertaken effectively could provide employment opportunity to our youths, enable us to maintain a clean environment and improve our health.”

But even as he seemed to justify this particular visit, the residents know better. He has made numerous such trips to other countries in the past two years. However, there is nothing to show for these trips despite even inking near a dozen agreements with different organizations.

In July last year, Governor Lusaka led a delegation of 15 county officials on a three-week trip to Spain and on his return, he announced several MoUs with the County Government of Asturia – Spain among which there was a proposal for the two counties to partner on establishing “a waste management policy and CORGESA model of waste management.” “We are in the process of acquiring 350 hectares for waste processing,” Lusaka is quoted to have said immediately on arrival.

Things had since gone quiet until he resurrected them with another trip to US over the same waste management seminar. To the residents, now this is outright pointless, but also award winning, nonetheless. On one of the forums that discuss issues of the county, Bungoma Digest, residents have roasted their party animal of a Governor with tongue-in-cheek memes.

Perhaps in recognition of his accomplishments and interest in attending Waste Management workshops across the world, the residents have designed him a Certificate of Attendance but whose course content also pays tribute to the seedy City of Las Vegas. “This document certifies that Kenneth Makelo Lusaka (Governor of Bungoma County) participated in the advanced workshop for waste management titled Waste management & Waist Techniques,” reads part of the certificate.