• Passaris wrote to clerk seeking clarity over Sonko's per diem claims.
• Governor had said Woman Rep was troubling her over pay for US trip.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Parliament has denied paying Nairobi Woman Rep Esther Passaris any allowances to attend a women's conference in the US in March.
National Assembly Clerk Micheal Sialai said there were no air tickets procured for Passaris as she was not in the House's official delegation to New York.
“This is to confirm that you were not part of the National Assembly's delegation to the 62nd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2018,” said Sialai in the letter to Passaris.
He went on: “As such, neither return air ticket was procured for you, or per diem paid for the seven days you attended the conference in New York, USA.”
Passaris, who was last month in the eye of a storm triggered by Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko over per diem claims, wrote to the clerk to seek clarity over the matter.
On June 5, Sonko claimed in a live TV interview that Passaris was troubling him with her demands for per diem allowances and cited the USA trip as one of many the county had procured air tickets for her.
He said Passaris was paid Sh400,000 per diem and was sponsored to go to New York by the National Assembly.
The governor said he declined to approve Passaris's request for per diem allowances from the county for her New York trip as Parliament was catering for her costs.
Sialai's letter now appears to exonerate Passaris from the illegal per diems claims by the governor.
Silai said Passaris never claimed a return air nor the per diem paid for the seven days she was in New York.
The rivalry between the two started on Madaraka Day when Sonko bashed Passaris for making numerous phone calls to him.
Passaris had said that she had been trying to reach Sonko but he had been dodging her calls.
Sonko said he would answer her calls when free, adding he was a busy man.
"I am not your husband that I should answer your calls anytime you want. Let us respect one another. Even President Uhuru Kenyatta does not respond to my calls every time," he said.