MPs summon Kiunjuri, Kinyua over Sh50bn maize import

Former Agriculture minister Mwangi Kiunjuri and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua have been summoned to clear the air over Sh50 billion spent to import maize.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly on Monday, Agriculture Principal Secretary Hamadi Boga was hard-pressed to prove that the grain was actually imported.

The government cannot fully account for this expenditure even as questions linger on whether the importation was need-based or meant to benefit powerful individuals.

The importation is alleged to have happened during the 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial years, but the failure to provide the relevant documents compelled the Auditor-General to flag the issue in his reports for the two years.

PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE

Dr Boga was required to provide payment vouchers, procurement plans and the presidential directive of February 14, 2016 that he claimed prompted the importation.

With the documents missing more than three years later, the committee is in a difficult position to ascertain whether the importation actually happened.

Dr Boga was taken to task by the committee members after it emerged that what he had claimed to be a presidential directive was actually a letter from the Head of Public Service, the chairman of the committee that he said sanctioned the importation.

The failure by the PS to thrash out the doubts has seen the committee, chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, summon Mr Kiunjuri and members of the Kinyua committee for questioning on February 24.

The committee also included former Agriculture minister Willy Bett and former Agriculture Principal Secretary Richard Lesiyampe.

BUDGET INFLATED

Also required before the committee is Strategic Food Reserve board chairman Dr Noah Wekesa and Treasury Principal Secretary Julius Muia.

“Whatever you have presented to this committee does not qualify as a presidential directive,” Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo told the PS as he directed him to the provisions of the Constitution that provide that a decision of the president shall be in writing and bear his seal and signature.

Asked by the Rarieda MP if he was ready to amend the answer he had provided, he was cagey.

“The President always communicates Cabinet decisions to us through Mr Kinyua. The committee that he (Kinyua) chaired was the one guiding the importation. I assume the committee got a directive from the Cabinet,” Dr Boga said, with Mr Wandayi wondering why the government would communicate in such vague terms.

It also emerged that the government overshot its budget in the 2016/17 fiscal year to procure the maize without a supplementary budget after Dr Boga confirmed that although Sh6 billion had been set aside for the importation, Sh12 billion was spent.