MPs yesterday complained about what they said were 'little kings' in the counties who were pilfering the billions that have been allocated to county governments.
The legislators told Auditor General Edward Ouko to audit the lifestyles of members of county assemblies and governors to make sure their new-found affluence was not linked to the runaway corruption in counties.
During a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at Parliament buildings, the MPs said some of the auditors who look at the books of the counties were being bribed to suppress audit findings and hide theft in counties.
PAC Chair Nicholas Gumbo (Rarieda) led MPs Eseli Simiyu (Tongareni), Sakwa Bunyasi (Nambale), Timothy Bosire ( Kitutu Masaba), Fathiya Mahboub (Mandera), Joseph Manje (Kajiado North), John Mbadi (Suba) and Junet Mohammed (Suna East) in pleading with the Auditor General to deal with the county leaders and the technocrats.
"There are governors who earn less than MPs but when you look at their spending habits, it shocks you. One of them had no house when we campaigned for him but today, he spends a minimum of Sh300,000 every week in fundraising campaigns," said Gumbo.
He added: "These people have just worked for two years, yet it appears their problem right now is how quickly they can spend the money they have."
Eseli said the Auditor General (pictured) had to pay his staff competitively to stop them from being tempted.
"We know that governors have a briefcase full of cash for the auditors and detectives of graft agency. That is why there's no audit that has raised serious malfeasance in the counties," said Eseli.
Manje said some MCAs hired choppers to campaign or traverse constituencies.
Ouko admitted he had bad apples within his staff. "Integrity is a problem that I see even with my own staff. You can't touch it but you see it in the shoddy reports. I have had to send some of them back to redo or to send a fresh team to do the audit," he said.
He said he would hire more staff to deal with the counties.
