A public gathering presided over by Minister for Fisheries Development Amason Jefa Kingi was interrupted for half an hour when two civic leaders differed in public over misappropriation of public funds at Marereni Secondary School in Magarini district.
Kingi was on his tour at his Magarini constituency last week handing over CDF built structures to schools when a Malindi county council counselor and his Municipal counter part differed in public causing tension at the gathering.
Nominated counselor Justine Rafiki had warned his colleagues over misusing funds allocated to their respective wards for developments projects.
He said it was shame for the Malindi county council for having built a laboratory at Marereni secondary school without providing the necessary equipment’s while Magarini Constituency Development Funds had constructed 8 classrooms in the same school.
“The council and my colleagues this is shame to us why have we built the lab if there was no enough money to equip the lab? CDF has constructed 8 classrooms here unless we are misusing cash allocated to our areas from the municipal council then this could not have happened because it is shame,” he noted.
His statement irritated the area counselor Stanley Kenga who sprang up and grabbed the microphone from counselor Rafiki causing tension among the locals who had gathered during the ceremony where the area MP officially handed over 8 CDF built classrooms to Marereni Secondary School.
Counselor Kenga warned his counter part Rafiki for uttering such words in public and more so in his stronghold ward which to him amounted to intimidation.
He said he did not deserve to be abused by any one in his him ground and that there was no funds which had been embezzled as his colleague claimed almost struggling to fight him but police officers and leaders contained the situation.
Amason Jefa Kingi, Magarini DC Richard Karani and Marereni Secondary School Principal had to intervene to bring down the hot tempered counselor who was ready to fight his colleague for uttering what he termed as abusing words in public.
“Why can someone come at home just to abuse? He was been sent to say such words in public and that I can not tolerate let me fight him and In fact in don’t want to see you here,” said as Magarini DC and other leaders convinced him to cool down for the meeting to continue.
Malindi county council chairman Anderson Kingi Ngombo said he was the one responsible to react on the claims of misappropriation of funds by the council and not the counselor.
“In this case I wonder what counselor Kenga was reacting to because I am the one responsible to issues of funds allocated to various areas of Magarini and Malindi district from municipal. This is my territory and so I don’t see the reason of my friend reacting bitterly to what is not being referred to him,” he noted.
He however warned political leaders to be able to accommodate each other as in politics blames will remain to be.
Magarini DC warned political leaders against uttering words which can spark violence during their public gathering as well as avoiding differ in public as that can cause their supporters to fight.
“As leaders you should avoid such scenes to your people because they can even start fighting. We have forgiven you today but tomorrow you repeat that you will be arrested am telling you,” he warned.
Minister Kingi urged political and all leaders to be able to tackle issues in appropriate manner and not being violent to others.
He said being blamed in public for claims of misuse of public funds should not be a reason to hate each other since such blames will never cease to exist.
“If reacting violently to those who publicly accuses us, then I could have dealt with many of them but there are appropriate ways of doing it,” said Kingi who is also the acting Industrialization Minister.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.