Kitui County Assembly Speaker Kevin Katisya has come out to defend that County Assembly’s and MCAs against the onslaught by the controller of Budget on foreign travels that they have undertaken.
Kinengo says every financial circle; there are always allocations for capacity building for elected leaders in county assemblies, executive, national assembly, Senate and among other institutions.
Kinengo explains that the County Assembly budget just like the one for National Assembly and Senate is made to facilitate MCAs to oversight the Executive arm and capacity building for the legislators as well as staff.
“If Hon. MCAs decide to go for capacity building and benchmarking overseas and they are doing so within the budget that is approved by the Controller of Budget herself, what is wrong with that” possess Kinengo.
Kinengo accuses the Controller of Budget of what he terms as playing politics with the welfare of MCAs in a bid to portray them as insensitive to the plight of their bosses who are the electorates.
He says development budget is domiciled in the executive arm of Government and that Assembly budgets are not in any way related to development but rather Legislation, Representation and Oversight.
Kitui County Assembly was highlighted by the controller of Budget as the highest spender on foreign trips by the MCAs and Staff in the First Half County Budget Implementation Review Report (CBIRR) for FY 2023/24, covering the period July 2023 – December 2023.
In the summary highlighted by the controller, she pointed out that during the period July to December last year, the entire Kitui County Government spent Ksh 323.79 million on local and foreign travel but only Ksh 44.16 million was spent by the Assembly on foreign travel.
“During the period, expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Ksh 279.62 million and comprised Ksh 63.22 million spent by the County Assembly and Ksh 216.43 million by the County Executive. Expenditure on foreign travel amounted to Ksh 44.16 million by the County Assembly”.
Interesting observation in the report is that Kitui County Assembly is the only one highlighted with specific officers and number of MCAs who travelled abroad yet all other budget highlights for other Assemblies are vague on who travelled.
“Further, Kitui County executive spent some Ksh 216.16 million on local travel but it was not highlighted as a big spender but Ksh 44.16 million becomes a big spender,” a close look at the report points.
The above points to a targeted onslaught that the county Assembly Speaker is pointing at “which is meant to achieve a certain political goal and paint the MCAs as insensitive and out of touch with the electorate’s hardships”.
Kinengo spoke in Tharaka Ward during the Thanksgiving and homecoming fete of Hon. Godfrey Muthengi Ndagara – Malenga (MCA Tharaka & Deputy Majority Whip) held at The Great Tana Campus of Tharaka University at Kamayagi, Tharaka Ward in Mwingi North Constituency.
