Africa-Press – Kenya. Former Treasury CS Ukur Yatani has threatened to take legal action against Controller of Budget Margaret Nyaknag’o over her claims that he pressured her to irregularly approve an expenditure of Sh15 billion.
In a statement on Wednesday, Yatani said the claims are false and malicious and actionable in law.
“This depiction is libellous and defamatory to my character and professional service to the public in many capacities. I have instructed my lawyers to study her utterances and advice on a lawsuit against her person,” Yatani said.
Nyakang’o made the claims on Tuesday when she appeared before the National Assembly Public Petitions committee.
She presented before the committee copies of what she claimed were WhatsApp conversations between her and the former CS which culminated in her approving the release of Sh15 billion in a record 26 minutes.
In the alleged conversation, Nyakang’o approved the release of Sh1 billion to the Office of the President and Sh10 billion to the Infrastructure Ministry for some security project that was on the verge of being abandoned by the contractor.
She said she was aware that the approvals were irregular but she was made to give the green light under duress.
“Please help us expedite this. His Excellency might even call you if we don’t deal with this by 4 pm,” a text message Nyakang’o alleged was from the former CS said.
But in response, Yatani said the claims depicted him as a cabinet secretary whose role at the Treasury was designed to facilitate the theft of public funds.
He said for the record, Article 223 of the Constitution empowers the Treasury Cabinet Secretary, in certain scenarios, to authorise the expenditure of funds not appropriated by Parliament without parliamentary approval.
He said the approval can later be given later within a period of two months.
“This is a constitutional fact and practice. For the Controller of Budgets to suggest that I pressured her to authorise some payments without parliamentary approval is therefore calculated malice,” he said.
Yatani said last week’s approval of Sh127.5 billion for the national government through a supplementary budget was made under the provisions of Article 223 same as the one the COB used to approve the Sh15 billion.
“This begs the question; what makes this approval of Sh15 billion sneaky and that of the Sh127.5 billion before parliament and mostly under the current government legitimate yet they both used the same constitutional path?” he asked.
Yatans said this only suggests some form of “targeted malice and selective application of discretion to shield herself from the uncertainty of regime change”.
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