The County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) has started considering Auditor General’s reports of the 47 County Governments.

Governor Mutahi Kahiga was the first county boss to appear before the Committee to defend the revenue and expenditure accounts of his administration since the 13th Parliament was elected in August 2022.

The Governor appeared before the Committee, which is chaired by Homa Bay senator Moses Kajwang, on Wednesday, February 8, 2023.

Mr Kahiga responded to concerns raised by the Senators on the queries raised by the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in her report on the financial accounts of the county for the 2019/20 financial year.

One area of concern to the lawmakers, and which is captured in the report, is the status of the own source revenue in Nyeri County. In her report, the Auditor General notes that there is a variance on the exact revenue collected by the county during the financial year.

Data the County submitted to the auditor general indicates that Nyeri collected Ksh656 million in the 2019/20 financial year. However this is at variance with records captured by the Office of the Controller of Budget in its annual report during the financial year, which indicates that the county collected Ksh664 million, indicating a variance of KSh8.23 million.

“The difference of Ksh8.23 million has not been reconciled and therefore the accuracy and completeness of the county own generated revenue of Ksh656 for the year ended 30 June, 2020 cannot be confirmed,” the auditor general says in her report.

In his response, the Governor said the difference in the figures was due to revenue that was banked in the previous financial year 2018/19 but which was receipted in the financial year 2019/20.

The grilling of the governor was witnessed by members of the Public Accounts and Investments Committee of Kakamega County Assembly who are on a one week benchmarking tour in the Senate.

Other members of the committee are Senators Okiya Omtatah (Busia), Fatuma Dullo (Isiolo), Samson Cherargey (Nandi), John Methu, Mariam Omar (Nominated), Mwenda Gataya (Tharaka Nithi), Richard Onyonka (Kisii), and Edwin Sifuna (Nairobi).