Extend audit to security agencies, urges watchdog

All national institutions including security organs should be scrutinised by the Auditor General’s office so as to uphold and enhance accountability, State-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCCHR) has said.

KNCHR Chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori says the body is opposed to plans by a section of the country’s leadership that recently proposed that security organs be exempt from inspection by the Auditor General in their budgetary expenditures. “National security budgets and operations must be carried out in a transparent and accountable manner as stipulated in article 238 of the Kenyan Constitution, that requires all security organs to conduct their operations within the rule of law and human rights,” explained Mbogori.

She said despite their duties, security agencies must be accountable and transparent on how they use taxpayers’ money as a gesture of good governance. Mbogori was speaking during a governance forum organised by the Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya (ICPSK) in Nairobi, yesterday.

Ms Mbogori said Kenya loses about Sh4 billion to corruption every year, saying the vice was largely facilitated by professionals.

ICPSK Chairman Dr Nicholas Letting said without good governance human rights cannot be respected and protected in a sustainable manner. “In the realm of delivering state services to the public, good governance reforms advance human rights when they improve the country’s capacity to fulfill its responsibility to provide public goods which are essential for the protection of the number of human rights, such as the right to education, health and food,” added Letting.