A ruling issued by a High Court judge yesterday has temporarily barred the establishment of Kenya’s public debt audit taskforce, pending determination of a case filed challenging the process.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi also directed that the application will be served to the Attorney General and other respondents within the next three days, with responses expected in seven days. The case challenging the presidential executive order was filed by Dr. Magare Gikenyi and Mr. Eliud Matindi, citing that the role of debt auditing is constitutionally the Auditor General’s. President William Ruto established the taskforce last week Friday, and a report on the public debt was expected to be compiled in three months.“Pending the hearing and determination of this application, an interim order be and is hereby issued prohibiting the respondents, either by themselves, anyone else acting at their behest, instructions, directions, or any other person whosoever, from discharging any functions pursuant to Executive Order No. 4 and Gazette Notice No. 8261 Vol. CXXVI – No. 97 5th July 2024 establishing the Presidential task force on forensic audit of the public debt,” said the High Court ruling.
The petitioners challenging the order have cited that allocating roles meant for the Auditor General to a random taskforce further wasted financial resources amidst calls for austerity.
“Duplicating roles is a waste of scarce public resources since the task force will essentially be performing roles of existing public offices, contrary to the constitution,” they said.
Some of the appointees of the audit task force, it has been argued, are not professional auditors and their contribution to the process is highly nondescript. Among them included LSK chairperson, Faith Odhiambo, who rejected the appointment citing its unconstitutional nature.
The task force was to be led by Nancy Onyango and deputized by Prof. Luis Franceschi. It was expected to determine whether the loans taken by Kenya over the years have been utilized for the purposes they were meant to finance. Other members included ICPAK President, Philip Kaikai, IEK President Shammah Kiteme, and Mr. Vincent Kimosop.
The task force was also ordered to evaluate costs of the projects and the returns on investments and equity. However, Article 229(4) of the constitution specifies that the Auditor General only is allowed to audit public debt within six months after the end of each financial year – being an independent office unaffected by executive whims.
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