Nakuru’s State of Deception: Why Susan Kihika’s Address Won’t Change Nakuru’s Troubling Reality
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Tomorrow, Governor Susan Kihika will stand before Nakuru to deliver her State of the County Address, an event her communications team has meticulously prepared with posters, livestream schedules, and well-rehearsed talking points, but behind the polished imagery lies a record that continues to weigh heavily on residents, auditors, and oversight bodies, a record that no speech, however confident, can fully erase, because under Susan Kihika’s leadership the county has repeatedly faltered in the basic duties of governance, accountability, and service delivery.
The most recent oversight processes reveal a government running without its essential pillars, spending vast sums without adequate controls, and announcing projects that remain largely invisible on the ground.
When the Governor appeared before the Senate Public Accounts Committee in September 2025, it became apparent that Nakuru operates without critical governance structures, with no functional County Public Service Board, no Audit Committee, and a finance docket lacking a substantive Chief Officer, leaving multi-billion-shilling financial decisions in the hands of acting officials whose authority and capacity remain questionable, while the designated Head of Accounting Services does not meet the professional qualifications required under ICPAK, making Nakuru one of the few counties in the country where public finances are managed by someone without the mandated credentials.
These gaps in governance are not mere technicalities but they have created an environment ripe for financial leakage, unverified expenditures, and delayed accountability.
The Auditor-General’s summary for the 2024/2025 cycle highlighted Nakuru among counties with poor record-keeping, unreconciled accounts, and spending that could not be fully supported with documentation, while stalled and abandoned projects have become the norm, with funds allocated and contracts signed but roads announced with fanfare in 2023 still lying untouched, and building projects flagged as “ongoing” existing only on paper or standing frozen after the first phase, a situation the Acting Chief Officer for Finance struggled to explain during the Senate hearing.
The lack of oversight is not limited to audits alone. In early 2025, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission summoned eight senior Nakuru County officials over allegations of irregular payments to private law firms amounting to millions of shillings outside proper procurement channels.
These incidents confirmed the findings of audit reports and Senate proceedings that the county’s financial systems have become increasingly difficult to trust.
Residents have not forgotten the War Memorial Hospital takeover, a day that remains etched in public memory for all the wrong reasons, when patients were forcibly displaced, staff were dragged from their posts, court orders were ignored, and county askaris stormed a functioning hospital in a manner that resembled a raid more than any lawful government intervention.
The episode left a lasting stain on the administration’s respect for due process and human dignity, rattling public confidence, embarrassing the county, and instilling fear that if a hospital could be taken over in such a way, then no private or public service in Nakuru was truly safe from abrupt and forceful action.
Nowhere has this collapse of governance and oversight been felt more painfully than at Nakuru Level Five Hospital, where in February 2025 the body of a seven-month-old infant, Mercy Chepng’eno, disappeared from the hospital mortuary after her death, leaving her deaf parents devastated and prompting a criminal investigation into the mortuary staff.
Audit reports from the 2024/2025 period also revealed expired medicines and medical supplies worth Sh1.8 million sitting unused in hospital stores, reflecting serious lapses in inventory control and procurement oversight.
The problem of unclaimed bodies has persisted over time, with dozens of bodies, including infants, held in the mortuary for months before the county issued notices for collection or disposal.
These incidents highlight systemic failures in financial management, record-keeping, and the protection of human dignity, exposing the county’s main referral hospital to repeated crises that continue to undermine public trust.
Nothing has illustrated the leadership vacuum more clearly than the period earlier this year when the Governor was absent from public view for months during which no substantive communication emerged from her office, county operations slowed significantly, and residents felt the absence deeply, because the issue was not that a leader stepped away, as leaders are human, but that the county was left drifting without clear direction, transparency, or accountability.
These are not political attacks, but documented realities supported by Senate committee proceedings, Auditor-General summaries, EACC summonses, and the lived experiences of wananchi.
Although tomorrow’s speech will likely attempt to portray progress and stability, highlighting select projects and celebrating long-term plans while recasting recent controversies as victories, Nakuru residents understand the county far better than any scripted address, living amid the consequences of administrative failure and systemic neglect, navigating stalled projects, encountering service failures, witnessing the cracks in the financial management system, remembering the force used at War Memorial, and observing oversight structures remaining empty year after year.
With a knack for captivating storytelling, Amos Lumbasi has a talent for crafting narratives that resonate with readers. He combines meticulous research with a captivating writing style to create articles that are both informative and enjoyable to read.
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