Uproar after law clipping Kenya’s Auditor General powers is passed

NAIROBI: President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to sign into law a bill that critics claim will frustrate the work of the Auditor General to scrutinise public spending.

Coming on the back of swirling corruption cases that have rocked the Jubilee administration, provisions in the Public Audit Bill 2014 that restrict oversight on national security matters and control in hiring of its staff, are viewed as obstacles to scrutiny of Government expenditure.

Given the high threshold of the two-thirds majority required to overturn the President’s memorandum, the Senate passed the bill on Wednesday evening with the contentious provisions, just as had been the case with the National Assembly in June.

The bill, which Opposition lawmakers have branded as yet another example of the Jubilee government’s determination to kill independent offices, after hounding of anti-graft commissioners, now awaits presidential assent.

In the National Assembly in June, Suba MP John Mbadi had said: “”If we lose the Office of the Auditor General, especially after losing the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), there is even an attempt to remove the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and send him home; we are going to lose the independence of institutions.”

Thursday, the National Assembly approved the nomination of Philip Kinisu to head EACC and Dabar Abdi Maalim, Paul Mwaniki, Sophia Lepuchirit and Rose Mghoi Mtambo-Macharia as commissioners.

CAPPING NUMBERS

The team replaces Mumo Matemu, Esther Keino and Jane Onsongo who were forced out of office.

The clause in the Public Audit Bill granting the Public Service Commission (PSC) a role in the recruitment of staff in the Auditor General’s office was introduced by the President and MPs were unable to raise the requisite numbers to overturn him.

There is concern that the provision is likely to interfere with the independence of the Auditor General either through PSC capping numbers of staff or even seconding them to other entities thus interfering with the operations of his office.

Initially Clause 4(2) of the bill stipulated: “The office shall comprise the Auditor General as its statutory head and all staff including the staff appointed by the Auditor General.”

But the President in a memorandum recommended it be substituted with a new clause that reads: “The Office shall comprise the Auditor General as its statutory head and all other staff appointed by the Auditor General as may be delegated in accordance with Article 234 (5) of the Constitution.” Article 234(5) of the Constitution refers to the Public Service Commission delegating its authority to another office.

Clause 40 that spells out limitations to auditing on basis of national security is retained in the bill, after a mediation team comprising of representatives of the National Assembly and the Senate, failed to agree on compromise version.

CORD senators faulted their Jubilee colleagues for approving the President’s memorandum on the proposed laws, despite their opposition to the same.

Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr (Makueni) cautioned his colleagues against voting in support of the President’s memo and instead called for further consultations.

“History will judge this House very harshly. We have rubber-stamped a presidential proposal to dismember the Office of the Auditor General in violation of the Constitution. We have failed to guide the country,” he told senators.