Uhuru’s ‘late’ travel orders to Ruto caused breach in hiring jet

President Uhuru Kenyatta is one of the public officers put on the spot by the Public Accounts Committee which investigated the “hustler jet” scandal whose report is yet to be tabled in Parliament.

In its recommendation, the team led by embattled ODM Secretary-General Ababu Namwamba, criticised the President for issuing verbal instructions to his deputy, Mr William Ruto, directing him to travel to four countries at short notice barely a month after they won the 2013 presidential election.

As a result of the directive, which the President gave while attending a World Economic Forum meeting in South Africa, staff at Mr Ruto’s office scrambled to hire a jet in less than a week to ensure that Mr Ruto travelled to Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Nigeria and Gabon between May 16 and 19.

WALKED TO TREASURY

At one point, an official from Mr Ruto’s office walked to the National Treasury several times in one day to secure the Sh18.6 million needed to pay for the transport costs.

The trip cost taxpayers Sh21 million for transport and accommodation, excluding allowances paid to the 14 people who accompanied Mr Ruto.

Two of those in the entourage were MPs while two others were senators. Three were security officers while the rest were officers from Mr Ruto’s office or the Foreign ministry.

As a result of the short notice, procurement staff in the Office of the Deputy President bent rules to ensure that the directive was executed expeditiously to ensure that Mr Ruto travelled to lobby for Kenya’s agenda ahead of an African Union meeting that was to be held in Addis Ababa in June.

IRREGULARITIES

Among the irregularities that PAC unearthed were a failure to inspect the jet for security, failure to sign a contract with the supplier of the jet, diverting money from other votes to pay for the hiring of the jet and awarding the contract to a firm that had not been paying taxes and which had not provided a similar service in Kenya before.

“Government procurement regulations and procedures were breached in the process of hiring the aircraft,” says the PAC report on “The ‘Hustler Jet’ Inquiry” which had been ordered by Parliament.

The committee has also investigated spending by the government, including the Office of the President.

In the “Hustler Jet” report, PAC criticised the President for giving verbal, rather than written directives to his deputy.

VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS

“The President instructed the Deputy President to undertake the tour verbally, contrary to Article 135 of the Constitution, which requires the President to convey his decision on the performance of his functions in writing,” the report says and accuses the President of breaching both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.

In its recommendations, PAC says that the President, being the custodian of the Constitution, “should at all times respect all its provisions” including the requirement for written instructions.

Although the committee absolved Mr Ruto of any wrongdoing, it recommended that the anti-corruption commission investigate his chief of staff, Ms Marianne Kitany, and four other officials for impropriety and dereliction of duty, among other breaches.

The five are also accused of breaching financial, procurement and taxation regulations and PAC has recommended that they be prosecuted alongside the directors of the company that hired out the aircraft.