Omar expressed concern that the probe could be a smoke-screen and wondered if Kenyans will ever get value for money out of their probe/FILE
MOMBASA, Kenya Nov 4 – Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar is questioning the ongoing probe by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly on the fraudulent loss of Sh791 million from the National Youth Service (NYS) Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) Account.
Omar expressed concern that the probe could be a smoke-screen and wondered if Kenyans will ever get value for money out of their probe.
“You know there is another side of the probe that you guys are not articulating enough that is why the Members of the National Assembly are in their numbers – both from CORD and Jubilee Coalition – they have all been benefited handsomely. So Waiguru was not only generous to a few like the Kaburas, she was generous also to the members of the National Assembly who knocked on her door,” he told a Senate and Kenya Parliamentary Journalist Association (KPJA) workshop at the Whitesands Beach Resort
He cast his concerns while citing that Kenyans were being treated to a circus because of some of those who have appeared before the House team.
“So what was that circus by Gumbo, yesterday and the day before? What is it intending to achieve it, when will the report come and who is going to act on it, because it must beyond aesthetics and optics? This is just about optics,” Omar said.
On Wednesday, former Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti said former Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru introduced changes that sidelined him and the NYS leadership from decision making.
He said the scandal started when Waiguru introduced staff changes that included having personal advisers report directly to her.
MPs, led by Committee chairman Nicholas Gumbo, however, took Mangiti to task over his role after he appeared to blame everyone else regarding the theft of taxpayers’ funds, especially over a letter he signed sanctioning the appointment of one of the key suspects, Adan Harakhe, as NYS Senior Deputy Director-General.
Mangiti, who cut the figure of a helpless man, even though he was the ministry’s accounting officer, said the NYS Senior Deputy Director-General position was tailor-made for Harakhe as it did not exist in the NYS Act.
Embattled businesswoman Josephine Kabura on Tuesday stunned MPs who are probing the NYS fraud, when she said she withdrew all the Sh1.6 billion she received from the agency and ferried it in cash to pay for supplies of a road project and other businesses contracted by the agency.
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