Senate summons auditor general over questionable Kakamega County vouchers

NAIROBI, KENYA: Senate on Tuesday summoned the auditor general Edward Ouko to appear before it and clear the air on the sh41million that his office cleared from the Kakamega County Assembly books in a suspicious manner.

The senate on Public Accounts and Investment committee (PAIC) accused officers of the Auditor general's office for clearing the assembly for the cash without verifying the authenticity of the vouchers presented by the assembly.

"The money should be recovered from the clerk for failing to clearly convince on the vouchers, he cannot convince us on the authenticity of the vouchers," said Kiambu senator Kimani Wamatangi.

The Kisumu senator Anyang' Nyong'o led committee said they would recommend for the recovery of Sh41million payment vouchers from the Kakamega County Assembly clerk Mr Patrick Kamwesa for failing to account for use of the funds and ordered for a special audit on their board.

The committee said that the assembly clerk was elusive in explaining the issue of the expenditure of the five items including training expenses and claimed that the vouchers presented by the clerk were not authentic.

Senators also the speaker and the clerk to task over the expenditures of the Sh29million

Kakamega senator Boni Khalwale accused the county assembly of single sourcing the picking of the persons to give consultancy which went against Public Procurement Act.

"The county assembly are known to single source the jobs of consultancy and it only needs one to make a call and clinch a deal to be a consultant," said Khalwale.

During the grilling, the senators ordered to for the summoning of the controller of Budgets Agnes Odhiambo to explain why she had approved the allocation of funds to the county government of Kakamega when they had for three years never released development money to the county assembly.