Home / Northern-Kenya

Isiolo governor summoned for sixth time to respond to audit queries

Isiolo Governor Governor Abdi Ibrahim Guyo (L) during a past meeting, (Photo: Handout)

By Waweru Wairimu | 17 Apr 2024

Governor Guyo has since March last year missed five summonses, four of them after successfully securing postponement.

A month after Isiolo Governor Abdi Ibrahim Guyo was fined Sh500,000 for snubbing invitations to appear before the Senate Public Accounts Committee to respond to audit queries for financial years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, the committee has ordered him to face it in a fortnight.

Governor Guyo has since March last year missed five summonses, four of them after successfully securing postponement. The most recent one came on March 8, when the watchdog committee sat at the Isiolo County Assembly chambers.

Keep reading

Isiolo County flagged for operating six commercial bank accounts

Before the March visit, Guyo had, in a February 21, 2024, letter by County Secretary Dade Boru requested the seven-member committee led by Homabay Senator Moses Kajwang to reschedule the meeting to June this year to "enable the county executive to trace needed documents," but the request was rejected.

The county secretary would, in another letter dated March 7, which was received by the Senate clerk on the same day the senators toured the county, request rescheduling because the governor was to travel outside the country on official duties.

The governor has been directed to appear before the committee in person on April 29 at the KICC in Nairobi, starting at 10 am, to respond to the issues raised by the auditor-general.

"You are required to provide 15 hard copies of written responses to the issues raised and 15 copies of any relevant documentation pertaining to the said issues," an April 12 letter by Senate Clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye read.

The county boss is also to submit a soft copy of the documentation required by the committee to the office of the clerk of the senate via email by April 22.

The committee may impose a fine not exceeding Sh500,000 or order the governor's arrest in line with Sections 19 (1) and (3) of the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act should he fail to honour the summons.

Guyo may also be fined not more than Sh200,000 or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months, or both, if found guilty of disregarding the summonses, the letter indicated.

During the recent visit, the senators accused the Governor of disparaging the Senate, maintaining that, like the High Court, the Parliament and any of its committees had powers to enforce the attendance of witnesses, examine them and compel the production of documents as enshrined in Article 125 (2).

Other members of the committee are Samson Cherargei (Vice Chairperson), Mwenda Gataya (Tharaka-Nithi), Okiya Omtatah (Busia), Fatuma Dullo (Isiolo), Richard Onyonka (Kisii) and Nominated Senator Mariam Omar.

The summonses have severed relations between Governor Guyo and Senator Dullo, who got into office under the same party (Jubilee) in the August 2022 general election.

The county boss has accused the legislator of rolling out 2027 campaigns under the guise of oversight and has maintained several times that he would not honour the summonses.

"You will not distract me from serving the people of Isiolo, with whom I have a contract. They are the ones with the authority to question and gauge me based on my manifesto," he said recently while commissioning a water project at Akadeli in Burat, whose drilling and equipping were funded by the county government and UNICEF.

The governor spoke weeks after the Senate committee toured the county and inspected several projects.

Senator Dullo insists she is only doing the work Isiolo residents elected her to do and will not stop until residents are satisfied with the services offered by the county government.