Mung'aro's absence fails to stop Senate probe into Sh10.7bn Kilifi pending bills

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**Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro.** [File, Standard]

The Senate County Public Accounts Committee has rejected a request by Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro to postpone his appearance before the committee to explain the Sh10.7 billion in pending bills in the county.

Governor Mung’aro, in a letter to the committee, said he was currently indisposed and also requested that the committee stop the planned inspection of various projects in the county on account of his absence. The request was also rejected by the committee.

The Committee Chairperson, Moses Kajwang, during a sitting at the Kilifi County Assembly, ruled that the two requests fell flat because the governor’s request was not accompanied by a report from a qualified medical doctor to ascertain that he was truly unwell.

“The Deputy Governor is constitutionally empowered to act in the absence of the Governor according to the provisions of Article 179 of the Constitution. It does not mean when the Governor is sick, the county should also be sick,” said Homa Bay Senator Kajwang.

Governor Mung’aro was to appear before the committee at the Kilifi County Assembly premises to discuss the issue of pending bills in the county, which stand at Sh10.7 billion, the second-highest figure nationally after Nairobi City County.

Senator Kajwang argued that there was no way the Senate committee could have travelled 500 kilometres from Nairobi during the Senate Mashinani programme only for the governor not to show up in his own county and for the Senate to go back to the city without inspecting county projects.

He directed Kilifi Deputy Governor Florence Chibule to appear before the Senate committee and explain the huge pending bills, since the county must run even in the absence of the governor, terming it the main reason why governors and their deputies were elected jointly.

“Let me clarify that the decision to direct the Kilifi Deputy Governor to appear before the committee is not a precedent, as the decision is borne out of extraordinary circumstances in the county at the moment,” said Kajwang.

The Kilifi Deputy Governor is expected to appear before the Senate committee on Tuesday morning to shed more light on the huge pending bills in the county.