Kirinyaga governor under pressure over alleged Ksh 3.4B loss

Kirinyaga County residents have given their governor, Joseph Ndathi, a seven-day ultimatum to return more than Ksh 3.4 billion which could not be accounted for in the 2014-2015 financial year Audit Report.

The residents threatened to storm the governor’s office to force him and his County Executive Committee (CEC) members out of office in order to pave way for proper investigations.

In the Auditor General’s report for the 2014/2015 fiscal year, the County Government of Kirinyaga failed totally to record in its books a revenue of Ksh 27 million collected from liquor business.

The Auditor General also found a sum of Ksh 54 million in bank accounts run by the county government that was not reflected in the books of accounts and further an anomaly of Ksh 22 million in the amounts paid to county workers, among other discrepancies in financial reporting.

The County Executive Committee Member for Finance, Murimi Murage, has, however, dismissed the audit report terming it grossly inaccurate adding that there was no way the county government would have misappropriated its entire budget and failed to fulfill its obligations.

He faulted the Auditor General, Edward Ouko, for publishing the report without prior verification of facts noting that the county spent Ksh 65 million in school bursaries as opposed to Ksh 703 million indicated in the report.

“There is malice and an attempt to tarnish the name of Kirinyaga County Government,” said Murage.