{"id":3263,"date":"2026-05-22T01:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T01:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/?p=3263"},"modified":"2026-05-22T01:01:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T01:01:27","slug":"media-houses-have-been-called-to-delete-my-press-ichuni-mca-says-after-fall-out-with-kisii-governor-arati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/media-houses-have-been-called-to-delete-my-press-ichuni-mca-says-after-fall-out-with-kisii-governor-arati\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Media Houses Have Been Called To Delete My Press&#8217; Ichuni MCA Says After Fall Out With Kisii Governor Arati"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1adg3ll r-1g7jtus r-1x3r274\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1x3r274\"> A bitter public war has erupted between Ichuni Ward MCA Hon. Wycliffe Siocha and Kisii Governor Simba Arati, with the MCA launching scathing accusations of massive corruption and abuse of power.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1adg3ll r-1g7jtus r-1x3r274\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1x3r274\">In a strongly worded statement, MCA Siocha claimed that Governor Arati paraded 30 tractors at Kisii Stadium that were supposedly procured for Ksh 850 million, yet their actual market value could not exceed Ksh 400 million. <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cArati is looting the county dry,\u201d Siocha charged.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1adg3ll r-1g7jtus r-1x3r274\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1x3r274\">The MCA further alleged that Governor Arati demands 30% kickbacks on every tender, a practice he says has led to massive inflation of county projects. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1adg3ll r-1g7jtus r-1x3r274\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1x3r274\">Siocha also accused the governor of running a regime of intimidation, blackmail, and sabotage against dissenting MCAs. He claimed that any MCA who opposes Arati is immediately removed from county committees and subjected to political persecution.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1adg3ll r-1g7jtus r-1x3r274\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1x3r274\">Adding a new twist to the drama, MCA Siocha claimed that media houses are currently being called and pressured to delete his press statements and interviews from their platforms in an apparent bid to suppress his voice.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1adg3ll r-1g7jtus r-1x3r274\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1x3r274\">The escalating feud has exposed deep divisions within Kisii County leadership and raised fresh questions about governance and accountability in the devolved unit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1adg3ll r-1g7jtus r-1x3r274\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1x3r274\">As of now, Governor Arati\u2019s office is yet to issue an official response to the serious allegations leveled against him.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1adg3ll r-1g7jtus r-1x3r274\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1x3r274\">This latest public clash comes amid growing scrutiny of county spending and tendering processes across several devolved units in Kenya.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bitter public war has erupted between Ichuni Ward MCA Hon. Wycliffe Siocha and Kisii Governor Simba Arati, with the MCA launching scathing accusations of massive corruption and abuse of power. In a strongly worded statement, MCA Siocha claimed that Governor Arati paraded 30 tractors at Kisii Stadium that were supposedly procured for Ksh 850 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stateupdate.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GIkcDbBWsAEkiGs.jpg?fit=954%2C575&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc68Dd-QD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3263"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3268,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions\/3268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateupdate.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}