Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top

Kenya

Arrest Oparanya, Tobiko orders CID

Tobiko has directed the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to take Oparanya into custody in response to a complaint filed by the Speaker of the Senate/FILE

Tobiko has directed the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to take Oparanya into custody in response to a complaint filed by the Speaker of the Senate/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 10 – The Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko has ordered the arrest and interrogation of Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya for his failure to honour Senate summons.

Tobiko has directed the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to take Oparanya into custody in response to a complaint filed by the Speaker of the Senate.

Last month the Senate Public Accounts Committee called on the prosecutor’s office to compel Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya to appear before the committee after he failed to heed their summons to appear.

Committee Chairman Boni Khalwale who also happens to be Kakamega Senator said despite three invitations, the Governor declined to appear resulting in a summons which he also refused to honour and wants him ‘frog marched’ to Parliament.

READ: Khalwale wants Oparanya punished for defying Senate summons

Article 125 of the Constitution gives either House of Parliament and any of its committees the same powers as the High Court to enforce the attendance of witnesses.

The Khalwale chaired committee issued summons for the Governor on October 1.

READ: Oparanya summoned by Senators over audit queries

Oparanya has previously accused the Senate of a witch hunt saying he is not an accounting officer and cannot respond to some of their questions.

READ: Oparanya summoned by Senators over audit queries

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

It was for this reason that he sent his Finance Executive Paul Otsola and the County Secretary Jeremiah Were in his place on October 1.

At the session they produced a court order which they said barred the Governor from appearing before the committee.

Some of the issues raised by the Auditor General are misappropriation and irregular diversion of county funds, lack of documentation to support spending of county funds and contravention of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.

“The auditor found that upon entry into office, the Governor of Kakamega took Sh5.2 million being funds for LATF, and went and bought a car, diverted it and bought a car for himself and when he was asked to produce log books for this vehicle that he bought, he did not give. We want to know why he diverted the funds to buy a car for himself,” Khalwale explained.

According to the auditor’s report, there also were no proper records of debtors and no evidence of efforts to recover the lost money totalling over Sh10.2 million.

About The Author

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News