Siaya Governor James Orengo has vowed that the Linda Mwananchi rally in Homa Bay on Sunday will go on despite alleged plans to block the event and reports of preparations to attack leaders attending it.
“There are people from Homa Bay who are patriots. But there are certain leaders from Homa Bay who are living in the past. They don’t know we have a new constitutional order,” Orengo said.
The governor compared the situation to Kenya’s struggles during the push for multiparty democracy, recalling periods when political leaders and their supporters were prevented from accessing certain parts of the country.
Orengo said Linda Mwananchi leaders had successfully held rallies in different parts of the country and would not be intimidated from holding the Homa Bay meeting.
“I want to assure those leaders from Homa Bay that we will be in Homa Bay. We will use cars, bows and arrows, injuries, including fractures. If the last act that I can do for this country, in the name of change and patriotism, in the name of democracy, is for me to die for my country, I am prepared,” he said.
He further alleged that some individuals had held meetings where weapons were allegedly distributed in preparation for the rally.
According to Orengo, weapons including rungus, arrows and pangas were allegedly distributed during a night meeting in one of the counties.
He also alleged that traders were being discouraged from travelling to Homa Bay to attend the rally, claiming some market women had been told to sell their goods at Kabunde Airstrip instead.
The governor maintained that such efforts would not stop the rally.
PAYROLL CHAOS IN SIAYA: Hundreds of County Workers Go Unpaid Over Missing File Numbers
A deepening payroll crisis has rocked the Siaya County Government after it emerged that hundreds of employees — including senior officials — have gone without salaries for two consecutive months due to the absence of personal file numbers required for payroll processing.
The crisis, now sparking outrage within the County Assembly, has exposed glaring inefficiencies in the county’s Human Resource Department, with lawmakers accusing officials of systemic failure and possible corruption.
More than 500 permanent and casual workers, among them market sweepers and hospital cleaners, have reportedly worked for years without being assigned the critical personnel file numbers needed to onboard them into the official payroll system.
The situation worsened after the Controller of Budget halted manual salary payments, enforcing strict compliance with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD), effectively locking out all staff not captured in the system.
During a heated Assembly session chaired by Speaker George Okode, Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) sharply criticized the Human Resource Department for what they termed as “gross inefficiency” and administrative negligence.
Lawmakers revealed that affected workers have been subjected to endless bureaucratic delays, being shuffled from office to office — a process some allege is deliberately designed to solicit bribes from desperate employees.
Speaker Okode did not mince his words, warning that the Assembly would take decisive action against officers responsible for the crisis.
“Workers’ lives are now rendered unbearable. Some have been evicted, others cannot pay school fees or meet basic needs. This is unacceptable,” he said.
He further called for urgent reforms within the department, including restricting system access to only accountable officers and streamlining the issuance of personnel file numbers.
East Ugenya MCA Fredrick Omoro described the situation as “shameful,” noting that senior officers tasked with safeguarding workers’ welfare were instead presiding over their suffering.
His North Sakwa counterpart, Oliver Arika, dismissed attempts to shift blame to the national government, insisting the problem was purely internal.
“Staff are being tossed left, right and centre. Even the HR director claims she lacks authority to initiate or approve the process. This is a clear system failure that must be fixed urgently,” Arika stated.
Behind the bureaucratic gridlock lies a growing humanitarian concern. Workers at the lowest rungs — many earning modest wages — are bearing the brunt of the crisis, with reports of evictions, school dropouts, and mounting debt.
The unfolding situation has raised serious questions about governance, accountability, and the integrity of public service delivery within Siaya County.
As pressure mounts, the County Assembly is expected to push for immediate corrective measures, including a comprehensive audit of the Human Resource Department and expedited processing of all pending personnel records.
For now, however, hundreds of workers remain trapped in limbo — working without pay, and waiting for a system meant to serve them to finally function.
What we can see emerging from this piece from SIAYA TODAY is that things are really bad in Siaya County under Governor James Orengo.
The truly stunning part is that James Orengo the chief executive officer of Siaya County as the governor for the last four years is getting paid a ton of money with benefits every month and all that money is for him to spend on his leisure activities and running all over the country as an Absentee Governor of Siaya County.
Siaya County is the only county in all of Kenya that does not have a governor at all and even no deputy because James Orengo fired his deputy, William Oduol who is still in office but does nothing because Orengo has everything hidden in his closed office where he is never seen.
And this guy wants to be the Kenya President in 2027 or choose one for the country. Being shameless should have limits even for people like James Orengo.
Is there any other governor in Kenya doing what James Orengo is doing by getting paid and never doing anything for the county? The man is getting free money and air tickets to fly all over the country while county employees in Siaya get no pay and are being evicted from their houses for failing to pay rent and starving with zero income.
In the meantime, James Orengo’s appointments to take County Executive jobs to run Siaya County have been rejected because they are incompetent to take those jobs. Strangely enough Orengo had nominated the same people sometime back and were rejected by the County Assembly because of the same reason and he had the temerity to nominate the same people because they are his personal friends.
Effectively James Orengo after four years in office as the Siaya Governor has no executive officers to run the Siaya County daily operations to achieve anything for Siaya residents who voted for him to do exactly what he is refusing to do while running all over the country doing nothing.
Fresh Blow for Orengo as Siaya Assembly Rejects Repeat CEC Nominees Over Legal Hurdles
Governor James Orengo has suffered yet another political and administrative setback after the Siaya County Assembly’s Appointments Committee rejected the re-nomination of several County Executive Committee (CEC) members, declaring that the repeat appointments violated the law governing public appointments.
The ruling, delivered by the committee chaired by Speaker George Okode, marks a significant obstacle for the governor’s efforts to fully constitute his Cabinet and could further delay service delivery in key county departments.
The committee found that the nominees had previously been rejected by the County Assembly and that the governor, as the appointing authority, failed to demonstrate that the circumstances which led to their earlier rejection had changed, as required by law.
During the vetting session, Speaker Okode emphasized that the committee’s concerns were not directed at the nominees but at the appointing authority, arguing that the legal burden rests squarely on the governor.
“We are alive to the fact that the obligations in the Act are bestowed on the appointing authority and not you,” Okode told the nominees.
He cited Section 10 of the County Assembly Approval Act, 2017, which requires an appointing authority to submit a different nominee once a candidate has been rejected by the Assembly.
The law only permits the resubmission of a previously rejected nominee if the reasons for the earlier rejection no longer exist.
According to Okode, the Assembly was never furnished with evidence showing that those circumstances had changed.
The Speaker said the committee expected the governor’s office to provide a detailed legal and factual justification for reintroducing the nominees instead of leaving them to defend the appointments themselves.
“It is not your burden. It is the burden of the appointing authority,” Okode told the nominees, adding that the committee would have preferred explanations directly from the governor’s office.
One nominee attempted to demonstrate that his professional circumstances had changed, explaining that he had transitioned from teaching into the banking sector and was in the process of obtaining employment records from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
However, the committee maintained that such explanations could not substitute the legal obligation placed on the appointing authority.
After deliberations, the committee ruled that the repeat nominations failed to satisfy the legal threshold established under the County Assembly Approval Act and consequently rejected them.
The decision represents another chapter in the often-contentious relationship between Governor Orengo’s administration and the County Assembly over executive appointments.
The rejection is likely to prolong vacancies in critical county departments and could slow the implementation of development programmes at a time when residents expect improved service delivery.
It also underscores the growing insistence by county assemblies across Kenya on strict compliance with statutory appointment procedures, reinforcing legislative oversight over county executives.
For Governor Orengo, the ruling means he may now have to either demonstrate that the legal grounds for the previous rejections have ceased to exist or submit entirely new nominees for Assembly approval.
As the standoff continues, attention now shifts to whether the governor will challenge the committee’s interpretation of the law or move swiftly to nominate fresh candidates in order to unlock the county’s executive appointments and restore stability in his administration.
