By WAINAINA wa NDUNGU
Posted Monday, April 12 2010 at 21:00

A war of words has broken out between an MP and his predecessor over who is to blame for the misuse of the CDF kitty.

Mathira MP Ephraim Maina accused Mr Nderitu Gachagua of erecting signposts for the CDF projects at a cost of Sh360,000.

Some of the projects on which these signposts were erected, he claimed, did not even exist.

Mr Maina further accused the former MP of leaving office without properly handing over an inventory of projects initiated during his tenure.

But in a quick rejoinder, Mr Gachagua justified the money spent on signposts, saying that the Sh360,000 was paid for more than 200 projects and was tendered competitively.

He accused Mr Maina of diverting attention following what he termed as “the current poor performance of the Mathira CDF team.”

He said that a government report rated Mathira the second best constituency in CDF use nationally in 2006/07.

The war of words follows a recent National Taxpayers Association report that named Mathira as one of the constituencies that had lost cash through mismanagement.

Mathira was ranked the worst performer among the 17 audited by the lobby group, which indicated that some Sh8.2 million or 78 per cent of the CDF allocations went into bad projects in 07/08

Area CDF manager, Ms Margaret Rugiri, said most of the projects started by Mr Gachagua’s had been completed by the current MP.

She accused the lobby of failing to consult her office.

Source