House team seeks letter in NYS probe

The National Youth Service, Kenya.

A House team is looking for a Cabinet memo whose contents are key in determining if former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru should take responsibility for the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.

The National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has written to head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua seeking the December 2014 memo, which some members argue gave Cabinet secretaries sweeping powers over finance, procurement and human resource in their ministries.

Sources said the letter written last week will help the committee determine if Ms Waiguru is culpable for procurement malpractices that led to the loss of billions of shillings.

“The committee wrote to Kinyua last week and we are expecting him to forward that Cabinet policy, which we will review to determine if it gave the former CS powers she could have used to interfere with procurement and finance operations at NYS,” a committee source said yesterday.

Although PAC members have the policy document, the decision to write to Kinyua is meant to make the document formal for purposes of meeting the threshold of admissibility in the House, should it find Ms Waiguru culpable.