Comedian Sammie Kioko has been in the spotlight over the last few weeks over his alleged dispute with the Machakos County Government over a KSh. 19 Million bill for services rendered.
The dispute took a turn for the worse on Tuesday after Kioko was allegedly assaulted by Machakos County officers while protesting alongside fellow comedian Tom Daktari.
According to his colleague, Nasra Yusuff, who shared the alleged incident, Kioko had to be rushed to the hospital following the assault.
“I am traumatised. There was nothing to warrant the amount of violence that Sammy had suffered today,” Nasra said in a series on Instagram stories. “We have just arrived at Kangundo level 4 hospital. We have been driving all the way from Athi River, where he was first taken. He has now been transferred to Kangundo.”
Fellow comedian Tom Daktari later shared a photo of Sammie Kioko lying in a hospital bed.
However, despite claims by the comedian, Machakos County Secretary Muya Ndambuki denied that the county had failed in its duty to settle its bills.
In his statement made at a press conference, Mr Muya said the county had put measures in place to ensure bills were honoured.
“As a government we are cognizant of the important role that suppliers or contractors play in development and service delivery to the great people of Machakos,” Muya said. “In view of this, the county government has put in place proper mechanisms to ensure we clear all outstanding and pending bills.”
Playing down the issue, Mr Muya said that Machakos was not the only county in the country with pending bills.
“All governments, even the national government, have pending bills of importance is that those pending bills are recognised in our accounting books and scheduled for payment accordingly,” He said. “For all our contractors with pending bills, we have a pending bills master list and a payment plan, which guides us on the settlement of these bills based on age, availability of funds, budget and the basic principle of first in, first out.”
Without mentioning the comedian by name, Mr Muya said the situation with “certain individuals” was unfortunate.
“It is unfortunate that certain individuals, who cannot be directly identified as contractors, as per our records, have run a smear campaign meant to hoodwink the public that the county government is non-responsive to pending bills issues.”
Mr Muya further said that the county was ready to engage with any valid contractors, citing good bookkeeping as the county’s only defence against fraudulent claims.
“We wish to further reiterate that the government is ready to engage any authentic contractor or supplier who has contracted with the county to resolve any issues that may arise. We, as a government, are encouraging any disgruntled contractor to use the formal and recognised resolution mechanisms and avoid appealing to emotions.”
To conclude, Mr Muya said that as long as claimants were not registered as contracted parties, the county government could not move forward to resolve any alleged disputes.
“It is unfortunate that certain persons are presenting themselves as certain persons who have contracted with the county, but when we look at the books, the records are there, we cannot directly place them in any contractual arrangement.
“In the absence of that direct placement, then we are constrained as to how we invite them to the table for discussions because these are persons not privy to the contract. Let the persons who were parties to the contract step forward so we can show them the arrangement we have put down for purposes of settling whatever outstanding bill we have.”
Kioko is admitted at the Nairobi West Hospital.
