- MPs get sitting allowances of Sh5,000 for each ordinary member per committee sitting and Sh8,000 for chairperson.
- Most witnesses also incur travel and accommodation allowances to appear before the MPs, with some accompanied by huge delegations.
Image: FILE
Taxpayers will incur huge expenses in the ongoing Covid-19 fund probes that have once again exposed costly duplication of roles and conflict in Parliament.
A record five House committees are conducting parallel investigations and Kenyans have to bear the burden of the huge cost involved, raising questions on whether parliamentarians are keen on ensuring financial probity.
MPs get sitting allowances of Sh5,000 for each ordinary member per committee sitting and Sh8,000 for chairperson. On average, each committee has 19 members, translating into almost Sh100,000 per sitting per committee if all members attend.
Most witnesses also incur travel and accommodation allowances to appear before the legislators, with some accompanied by huge delegations.
Since the disclosure of likely misappropriation of Covid-19 funds, legislators in the bicameral Parliament have initiated uncoordinated probes, summoning the same witnesses to respond to almost similar questions.
The matter is being handled by the Health Committee, the Public Investments Committee (PIC) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly. In the Senate, it is before the Health committee and the Ad Hoc Committee on Covid-19.
Questions have been raised whether some of the committees have the legal mandate to intervene. The alleged misappropriation of funds involves both Afya House and Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa). They are on the spot for alleged irregular procurements.
The Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Covid-19 was the first to pronounce itself on the matter, directing Auditor General Nancy Gathungu to conduct a special audit on the expenditure.
The committee, chaired by nominated Senator Sylvia Kasanga, also wants Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o to furnish it with a special budget review implementation report on the utilisation of funds by the 47 devolved units towards the fight against the virus.
The National Assembly Health committee, the Senate Committee on Health and the Ad Hoc Committee have separately summoned Health ministry’s top officials.
The move has elicited friction, with PAC saying it is the only parliamentary panel with the constitutional mandate to look into the matter.
Last week, PAC, chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, directed the Office of the Auditor General to conduct forensic audit within 60 days.
“Our decision supersedes any other decision made by any other committee and any debate going on out there should be presumed as premature,” Wandayi said, adding: “I don’t know what role an Ad Hoc Committee can have to direct a special audit report.”
PIC chairman Abdulswamad Nassir downplayed any conflict in the two oversight committees, saying their role and interest in the matter are well demarcated.
“For the Health committee, its mandate is operations, PAC's mandate is ministry funds. The ministry had over Sh1 billion, which it spent directly, hence the accounting entity is PAC,” Abdulswamad said on the phone.
“Kemsa spent Sh7 billion, for that they are totally under PIC, even when the report will be tabled — notwithstanding whoever requested for the report — if it is a special audit on Kemsa, then the report will go to PIC. If it is a special audit on the ministry, it will go to PAC.”
The Mvita MP, however, questioned why the Senate is conducting probes into a matter not directly involving counties.
National Assembly Minority leader John Mbadi said the matter ought to be handled by one committee of Parliament to avoid, among others, a situation where different committees give different reports on the same issue.
“I think we are becoming a country that works on impulses; we are not structured in the way we do things. Parliament, being an oversight institution, should come in and investigate it but I think at this point we should have one committee to have a go and that should be the Health committee,” Mbadi said by phone.
The Suba South lawmaker also questioned the mandate of the Senate in initiating probes into the matters instead of focusing on how Covid-19 funds are being used in the devolved units.