By DAVID MACHARIA 
and JOSEPH NGURE 

A meeting called to hand over multi-billion shilling assets of the Eldoret Municipal Council to a private company failed to take off yesterday when councillors walked out. 

The full council meeting was to approve the leasing of property to the Eldoret Water and Sanitation Company, which was set up to manage the services in Eldoret town.

The meeting became acrimonious soon after journalists were ejected from the hall and the council treasurer, Mr Silvenus Okumu, started reading the list of assets to be leased.

A commotion was heard from the hall before councillors Paul Lelei (Ford-K), Francis Gicharu (DP), Kipling Yego (Kanu), David Bundotich (Kanu), Peterson Mwangi (DP) and Juma Budi (NDP) walked out, demanding that the meeting be postponed until a full list of the assets was made available to the civic leaders.

Trouble had started earlier as councillors complained that they had been ambushed. This delayed the meeting, which was scheduled to start at 10am but took off two hours later.

Among the assets on the list was a water dam worth Sh2 billion, houses, vehicles and other machinery. The company, which was formed more than a year ago, has been using council assets without a formal agreement.

The councillors wanted to know how much the council had earned since it privatised the water department.