The Anchor October-November 2010 stories

Why Tanathi ended Machakos

Water Company's Contract

By Nguma Kitone

  

Machakos Municipal Water and Sewerage Company Limited board directors have vowed to fight back to remain in office.

Company chairman Mr Munyao Kamba’s pledge came after Tanathi Water Services Board Acting CEO Nicholas Muthui ended the Company’s Water Services Provider’s (WSP) license with Tanathi.

Effectively, Tanathi has taken over the responsibility of providing water to Machakos Residents on day to day basis. Residents of the town have been demanding a reliable and daily supply of water since the rehabilitation of Maruba Dam. Since the disbandment of the company, there has been some improvement in the supply system.

The water supply system of the town is terminally undermined by a host of issues that include management, governance and operational challenges.

Since the company was appointed as the provider, it has seen the directors run the company on daily basis as employees, raising uproar in the town as the practice put the directors on a collision course with staff.

Munyao says in a letter that The Anchor has seen that the directors had moved to court to challenge the dissolution of the Board by TANATHI. Whether Munyao and his group succeed in reversing the dissolution is one thing but the restoration of the WSP license to the water company is certainly another.

The Directors were send packing in a letter to Munyao dated September 29,2010 referenced “emergency termination of service provision agreement and dissolution of Board of Directors”  and signed by the Acting CEO.

The CEO lists a plethora of sins that led to the decision, among them insider trading by the directors with the water company and their involvement in the day to day running of the company, which runs contrary to good governance practice.

It is alleged the director’s involvement in the management pushed up board expenditure to 21 percent of maintenance and operational costs, which is far above the 2 percent recommended.

In the letter, Mr.Muthui pointed out that the board had failed to provide water and sewerage services in Machakos town and its environs for the past five years.

He said the company, as a (WSP) is still unviable and cannot sustain its operations including prompt payment of salaries and statutory deductions, in spite of a Rapid Results Initiative developed between the company and Tanathi early this year.

“There has been critical shortage of water in the town in spite of there being plenty of water at the more than Sh.350million Maruba dam, posing a serious threat to public health”, said Muthui.

Mr.Kamba says he did not have the slightest idea why the TANATHI Board took that decision said his board will still remain in office and continue to discharge its mandate.

“The directors met and decided to move to court to challenge the decision as failure to protect ourselves would be seen as if we were on the wrong”. Kamba absolved his team from blame and directed an accusing figure on TANATHI for allegedly failing to play its role.

He said the main cause of the water shortage is not the availability of water at the rehabilitated Maruba dam but poor infrastructure whose mandate lies with TANATHI.

The sacked chairman said the filtration system at the main treatment works was messy, leading to a section of consumers receiving colored water.

The siphoning system from the dam to the new treatment works tank, which was shoddily done jams after six hours and takes about four hours to restart, slowing pumping. He recalled that TANATHI had promised to give his board Sh.1.9million to finance their Rapid Results Initiative whose budget was Sh.3.4million, but only provided Sh.0.5million.