Cord governors have dismissed claims by Jubilee that Raila Odinga is benefiting from the alleged
Okoth Obado (Migori), Jack Ranguma (Kisumu) and Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega) have said the claims are baseless and unfounded.
Speaking separately, the governors told Jubilee MPs to stop diverting public attention on massive graft in the national government and provide evidence on their claims.
On Wednesday, Leader of Majority Aden Duale and other MPs said Cord governors have been giving Raila monthly stipends and sponsoring his trips abroad and across the country.
The MPs accused Raila over double standard in fighting corruption in the government while protecting governors implicated in looting millions in Cord’s counties.
This is after Auditor General Edward Ouko released reports indicating massive corruption and unaccounted spending in county governments.
Among the named counties were Migori, Kakmega, Kisumu, Siaya, Homa Bay and Vihiga.
But Raila and accused the auditor of compiling biased reports.
Obado said no money has been lost in his administration and challenged Jubilee MPs to table supportive evidence of the claims.
“I was elected on PDP and there is no way one can purport that Raila has been protecting me over non-existing corruption claims,” he said.
He said money channeled to Migori has been utilised prudently on intended projects.
“The issue of money lost is neither here or there. My administration has never funded Raila,” he said on the phone.
Raila 'cannot hurt devolution'
In a statement, Ranguma said Duale's allegations are untrue, adding that Raila "cannot engage in acts that hurt the devolved systems".
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“Raila having championed for devolution, it is in the best interest of him that devolution succeeds and unlike the Jubilee government which has persistently frustrated devolution,” he said.
He accused Jubilee of raising the allegations as a means of bringing down devolution.
Ranguma noted that the allegations of graft are also being reported in Jubilee governed counties.
“Does it mean Raila also gets stipend from the counties in Central Kenya and Rift Valley?” he said.
He said dragging Raila into alleged corruption in counties proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the audit report has been compromised to create a political fodder for Jubilee.
“Even though we support the war against corruption, it must never be meant to settle political scores or be based on rumours, propaganda, allegations, accusations and counter accusations,” Ranguma said.
Oparanya has termed the process of auditing the public accounts by the Auditor General as "unethical".
The Governor, an accountant by profession, argued that in the absence documents on money spent on projects, an alternative audit should be carried out.
“All that we are seeing by the office of Auditor General is basically trying to 'look for mistakes' which should not be the case,” he said.
Oparanya, who has served as an auditor for 15 years, questioned the motive of the audit without considering all the available measures to establish the truth.
Double standards on corruption?
On Wednesday, Raila defended Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi over the missing Sh1.4 billion saying it was audit queries raised from preliminary audit reports.
But Jubilee MPs said the Cord leader was applying double standards in his fight against corruption by pushing President Uhuru Kenyatta to account for the alleged Sh5.3 billion scandal in Health ministry revealed by an interim audit report.
The reports for 2014-/5 financial year reveals the shocking loss of millions in taxpayers' money in counties through procurement, irregular salary payments, foreign and local travels, among other suspicious spending.
Governors Cyprian Awiti (Homa Bay), Cornel Rasanga (Siaya), James Ongwae (Kisii) and John Nyagarama (Nyamira) whose counties have questionable audit queries could not be reached for comments.
Migori exceeded their salary budget by Sh136 million while in Homa Bay Sh5.8million was irregularly paid to a cleaning firm which was not prequalified.
In Kisumu, Sh23million is unaccounted for by the administration during the 2014/15. In Nyamira, Ouko questioned why Sh196million fess earned from health was omitted from the county’s books.
A total of Sh10million was spent by county assembly even before the establishment of loans and Mortgages Board Fund in Kisii.
In Kakamega, report shows that health docket did not spend Sh330 million, part of the money allocated to it while in Vihiga, Sh8.9 million paid to MCAs was questionable and had not approved.