Ledama Olekina Surrenders After Mercy Tarus Declines His Job Offer: "I Respect Her Response"

• Ledama Olekina said he was impressed by Mercy Tarus after she bravely put hard questions to Uasin Gishu leaders regarding the botched overseas scholarship saga
• The Narok senator went ahead to offer a job to Tarus to appreciate her bravery and assertiveness
• Tarus, however, refused to take up the job, Ledama now saying he respects her response and decision

Nairobi - Senator Ledama Olekina has taken Mercy Tarus's decline of the job he had offered her recently.

Tarus became a national sensation after bravely putting to task Uasin Gishu leaders over the Canada and Finland educational airlift programmes to which parents and students committed millions of money.

Appreciating her assertiveness and bravery to speak to power, Olekina offered her a job.

"Mercy Tarus I would like you to work for me. Speak your heart. The future belongs to candid youth! Let’s talk," offered Olekina.

Tarus would, however, turn down the Narok senator's offer, asking him to help hold to account the Uasin Gishu county government as regards the multi-million shilling scholarship scandal.

"Mr. Ledama, before we can further this conversation, Talk to your fellow Senators to bring the Uasin Gishu County Government to book and compel them to REFUND rightfully hard-earned money to the Citizens of Kenya. Maybe then, we can talk. Otherwise, I have nothing more to say," she said.

Ledama, while responding to Tarus, suggested she might have been influenced to turn down the offer.

He said that the post would be a real job with laid-out terms like any other contractual job.

Regardless, he said he had respected her decision not to work for him.

"If indeed the response was from Mercy Tarus, she has a right to respond that way and I respect her sentiments. My position was clear, I said I would like her to work for me! Liking and offering have two different meanings.

I like her boldness and candid nature and that can rub positively on other staff. Now when it comes to offering, that would come second with specific terms or an invitation to work on a specific paid role," he said.

Meanwhile, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are conducting a probe into the scholarship scandal.

Also doing investigations are officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

Uasin Gishu overseas scholarship scandal

Parents and guardians are said to have sold their property, including land and livestock, to raise the monies.

Despite their effort, those who had been picked to benefit from the program did not travel to take up their positions in the overseas institutions when the time was due.

Being blamed are Uasin Gishu governor Jonathan Bii and Senator Jackson Mandago.

The programme was birthed during Mandago's tenure as governor.

Bii laid the blame on his predecessor while pointing to a KSh 138 million shortfall in the kitty set up for the program.

The governor explained that there were no monies to refund to the parents, but implied that would be done later after assessing the database that bears all the information.

According to the county's top brass, only KSh 1 million can be traced to the account.

On his part, Mandago sought to absolve himself of the saga, saying he handed over the program to the current administration.

Mandago said the monies left by the time he was leaving were upward of KSh 37.5 million, as opposed to the KSh 1 million the current administration claims to be in the account.

He also revealed that the students' locked accounts also had over KSh 67 million, leaving the balance at upward of KSh 104 million cumulatively.

Mandago further explained that by the time he was leaving, the beneficiaries had secured their slots in the Finish universities and were only awaiting their visas.