33 Governors to Appear Before the Senate Over Graft

The Senate Public Accounts and Investment Committee (PAIC) is set to question a total of 33 governors between April and July over county expenditure after a directive given by the Auditor General on March 30.

Of the 33 county heads, 19 will bear the burdens of their former governors while 14 others serving the second term will justify their actions of omission and commission in front of the Senate.

The Senate questioning has in the past been met with criticism from the governors who claimed the senators take advantage of the sessions to settle political differences.

Counties on the spotlight includes Machakos where MCAs used 72 million shillings to attend a ploughing championship in Bordeaux France, Mombasa county over 289 million shillings paid to a garbage firm, and Meru county where 3 million shillings was spent by the county assembly as a registration fee for a conference in Texas, USA only to arrive the last day of the conference.

Kakamega county governor will answer why the money for his initiative ‘Oparanya Care’ aimed at helping pregnant mothers was deposited into beneficiaries’ accounts even after the mothers had already delivered. The money used to purchase land for a stadium dubbed Gor Mahia Stadium couldn’t be accounted by the Homa Bay county government.

Governors who are serving their second term will answer to cases of spending that couldn’t be accounted for by their governments and the lack of evidence supporting them. Audit reports for the year 2014-2015 show possible massive wastage and misappropriation of funds in the counties.

Uasin Gishu county governor, Jackson Mandago, has an explanation to make upon his county spending 87 million shillings during the period under review and why his government failed to make a 133 million shillings deposit as revenue into the county revenue fund.

Ali Hassan Joho, Mombasa county governor will answer why over 500 million shillings county revenue was not deposited, while Alfred Mutua, Machakos county head will justify why the boreholes that consumed millions of shillings yielded no water. In Nyamira, John Nyagarama will have to justify why 196 million shillings revenues from health facilities were omitted from the books.

The first session will be from April 16 to April 19 and will question Mombasa, Makueni, Murang’a Mandera governors.  The second meeting will question Kakamega, Uasin Gishu, Samburu, Kwale, Embu, Machakos Trans Nzoia and Homa Bay county governors.

Laikipia, Tharaka Nithi Nyeri, Garissa, Marsabit, Nyandarua, Bomet, Wajir, Isiolo, Meru, Taita Taveta and Tana River counties will appear before the Senate team in June while Nairobi, Kisumu, Kitui, West Pokot, Nyamira, Baringo, Bungoma, and Kirinyaga will appear in July.

The date for the remaining 14 counties hasn’t been released yet. The questioning will start with the 2014-2015 financial year before interrogating 2015-2016 statements. Governors are required to confirm the appearance two weeks before the due date in written words.