Why Embu MCA’s Art and Craft benchmarking tour aborted

The stranded Embu MCAs.
There was drama when County Assembly committee members were left stranded at the Machakos- Mombasa Road junction after reportedly falling out with County Executive officials.
The Gender, Culture, Children and Social Services committee plus nominated MCAs had been invited for a benchmarking tour of handicraft industries in Mombasa County by the County Executive Committee member Joan Mwende through an official letter on Thursday last week.
However, according to the MCAs, another county official disowned the invitation and ordered their abandonment by the chartered bus.
The turn of events forced six out of the seven members of the committee, plus the assigned clerk to drop out mid journey until a later date when the culture department officials will have solved their differences.
A source in the county government, on the contrary, claimed trouble arose after the MCAs demanded to be paid their allowances on the spot.
The rest of the nominated members of the Assembly proceeded to Mombasa without clear direction on their mission.
The Ward Reps were stranded for hours in Machakos without an alternative means of transport back to Embu, but eventually they managed to travel through public means to Matuu, then Kiritiri and eventually Embu
The Committee’s chairperson nominated MCA Sicily Warue said she was forced to lead her counterparts in disembarking from the bus after realisation that there was intense infighting within the Ministry of Gender over control of the Sh15 million kitty set aside for improvement of the county art and craft sector.
Speaking shortly after arriving at the Assembly after the aborted tour, Warue added that she did not wish her committee to get entangled in administrative tussles pitting County Government officials against each other.
Warue also cautioned the County Executive officials against dragging the Assembly in their administrative disputes.
County Assembly Clerk Jim Kauma confirmed that the committee had returned from the trip without reaching their destination but was quick to mention that the cause of the fiasco would be addressed administratively.
“The trip was fully sponsored by the County Executive and not the Assembly,” he pointed out.
Contacted, Mwende who was out of the county admitted some tussles led to the incident, adding that the issue will be resolved soon to foster good working relationship with the Assembly.
She refuted claims that there was infighting in her office due to clamour for control of Sh15 million kitty.

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