Residents accuse county government of laxity

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Residents of Sensi Ward, Marani Sub county, Kisii County are forced to trek for about 7 kilometres to fetch water after the county government delayed drilling of a borehole commissioned one and half years ago.

The Kisii County Government is once again on the spot over alleged laxity in constructing a borehole in Sensi Ward, Kisii County after commissioning its drilling one and half years ago.

Subsequently, over 3000 residents of Kenyone One, Nyabikondo and Itianyi villages have lashed at the governor saying they felt betrayed especially during the current fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

            Speaking at Kenyone One village where a resident donated half acre of land on which a borehole will be drilled and whose  commencement was commissioned by Governor Ongwae, the residents decried failure by the county government to provide them with even  basic necessities like water and face masks.

            The owner of the land, Charles Nyabiage is now threatening to reclaim it back and embark on farming it is better for the land to be on crop than remain idle.

            The philanthropic  father of six said he had hoped to see local women and children relieved of the heavy burden of fetching water from a far-off springs.

            Another resident, Vanice Ongwae also accused the county government of failing to provide the residents with basic necessities to contain the spread of the global pandemic, claiming that the many donations received from various entities so far were yet to reach the common mwananchi.

            Ongwae  explained that women in his rural home had to trek for about 10 kilometres to access water.             When he first commissioned the drilling of the controversial borehole in January 2019, the governor called a meeting at the donated land and promised that more than 3,000 residents in the ward would benefit from the resultant water supply.

            Meanwhile, the canopy of trees under which the residents gathered back then still exists as the envisaged borehole remains a mirage.