• The reports by Auditor General Edward Ouko expose illegal and unsupported expenditures across the 47 counties running into billions.
• Outbursts and nasty exchanges between the governors and their senators have characterised, and, sometimes overshadowed most of the committee proceedings.
Image: Jack Owuor
Outright plunder? Poor record keeping? Or simply politics?
These are the questions that come to mind when one follows the ongoing grilling of governors by the Senate oversight committee over audit queries.
The county chiefs are increasingly finding themselves in a tight spot over the reports that flagged several unexplained expenditures in the devolved units running to billions of shillings.
While some are completely unable to provide documentation to support the huge spending and appear to be blaming their predecessors and their finance officers for poor record keeping, others have displayed outright ignorance of the financial operations in their governments.
Isiolo Governor Mohamed Kuti, for instance, was on Wednesday on the receiving end from the for blaming his predecessor Godana Doyo for his county's financial mess.
Senators, some eyeing their seats in the upcoming 2022 General Election, are fully exploiting the sessions to dress down and portray them as corrupt and incompetent.
Outbursts and nasty exchanges between the governors and their senators have characterized, and, sometimes overshadowed most of the committee proceedings.
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko in an April Senate committee appearance locked horns with Senator Johnson Sakaja over "friendship woes".
Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko on Wednesday locked horns with Senator Johnson Sakaja over friendship woes.
Sonko hit back at Sakaja asking how he could muddy their friendship for a non-issue in regards to the deputy governor post.
An agitated Sonko went further and said Sakaja only brought the issue to the committee because he wanted to be a governor, which the senator denied.
Sonko hit back at Sakaja asking how he could muddy their friendship for a non-issue in regards to the deputy governor post.
Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu and Senator Wamatangi also face off over money allegedly lost in the county, when the former appeared before the Senate Public Accounts and Investment Committee.
Two weeks ago, Migori Governor Okoth Obado asked committee chair Moses Kajwang' to "give him a moment to roast" his senator, Ochilo Ayacko, who he said was out to roast him at the session.
He alleged Ayacko was inciting Migori residents not to remit taxes, a move that has crippled collection of revenue in the county.
Last Tuesday, Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi and his Senator Mithika Linturi clashed bitterly before the committee some Sh2.5 billion the county could not explain during the 2017-18 financial year.
Murungi was hard-pressed to explain why his administration denied the residents the much-needed services and development by failing to utilise Sh1.97 billion allocated for development during the year under review.
The Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang'-led committee has grilled 11 governors in the past three weeks over the audit queries for 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-2018 financial years.
The reports by Auditor General Edward Ouko expose illegal and unsupported expenditures across the 47 counties running into billions.
Lawyer-turned political analyst Dunston Omari opines that some of the governors have intentionally not been carrying the documents or responding to the queries because they know they are actuated by malice.
He argues that most of the senators are interested in humiliating their governors to score political goals ahead of the 2022 duel.
“The Senators have taken the 2022 wars to the Senate. The rules of natural justice and conflict of interest demand that a governor from Busia or Kisii cannot be asked questions by the senator of the same county. The standing orders of the Senate should be challenged,” he says.
Obado was at pains to account for Sh1.5 billion spent by his administration in the 2017-18 financial year.
Obado, whose term has been marred by numerous corruption scandals, could not provide documents to authenticate the expenditure saying that they were destroyed by a fire that gutted county premises.
“I want to agree with the auditor that we were unable to provide the financial statements showing how that money (Sh1.5 billion) was used but that does not mean that the money was unlawfully spent,” Obado told the committee, absolving his administration against claims of impropriety.
“It was during that unfortunate incident fire incident that the records were destroyed,” he said when he appeared before the panel on May 13.
The committee was not satisfied with his explanation. The members argued the fire could have been intentionally ignited by the county officers to escape accountability after they plundered the money.
“The response by the governor does not address the issue. What you ought to have done is break the down Sh1.5 billion that was used during that period. You would have said, for example, Sh600 million was used to pay salaries, no one would have doubted that salaries were paid,” Kajwang said.
On April 29, Governor Sonko was at pains to justify the expenditure of more than Sh20 billion during his first year in office.
The Auditor General flagged the mindboggling amount after Sonko’s administration failed to provide documents to explain the spending.
Ouko cited unexplained withdrawals, payments to contractors and unbanked cheques as some of the avenues that could have been exploited by City Hall officers to siphon public funds.
Cornered by the Senators’ hard-hitting questions, the governor shifted the blame to the auditors. He accused Ouko’s officers of incriminating his administration after he allegedly declined to bribe them for a favourable report. He claimed that the officers had demanded Sh100 million.
Last Friday, Murang’a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria, who is also the vice-chairman of the Council of Governors, was put to task over unexplained expenditure amounting to over Sh2.5 billion in the 2017-18 financial year.