Senate issues fresh orders for Kabogo a day after Kiambu was blocked from devolved funds

Kiambu Governor William Kabogo. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

NAIROBI, KENYA: Just a day after Kiambu County was barred from accessing devolved funds, a Senate watchdog committee has issued fresh orders for the county boss, Mr William Kabogo, to book a date with the senators and explain why he has so far skipped 10 meetings.

The Senate Committee on County Public Accounts and Investments also wants Kabogo and his team to answer audit queries that the auditor general has raised with the accounts of Kiambu County.

Friday, the committee turned away Kabogo's deputy Gerald Gakuha and two members of the Executive committee.

The Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale who chairs the committee said his team needs to get information directly from the governors because they are the ones who take the overall responsibility.

"The letters are very clear. They are not ambiguous. We say that we need to meet the governor in person," said Khalwale.

Khalwale said Kabogo had agreed to meet the senators on any day, but when the Senate picked a date, he sent his juniors.

"He wrote to the committee and confirmed that he was going to be available on any day beginning August 1. We wrote back and told him to come on August 8, 2014," said Khalwale.

"But he did not show up. Instead he sent the deputy governor and two members of the County Executive. They came and told us that Kabogo was invited by the President for the US-Africa Summit," said Khalwale.

The senators demanded proof that Kabogo was actually part of the presidential delegation.

"If he was invited by the President, he would not have refused. But we want documentary evidence that he was part of the presidential delegation, otherwise we will surcharge the officials for wasting taxpayers' money to come for a meeting when they knew very well there was nothing useful they were coming to do," Khalwale told The Standard.