This archive report was first published on 24 June 2020.
The Senate is set to consider the Report of the Special Committee investigating the impeachment of Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, with a special sitting scheduled for Friday, 26th June 2020.
According to Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka, the matter will be the only business for the day, and the Senate will adjourn until 7th July immediately after.
Earlier, Waiguru's defence team presented its first witness, Carilus Otieno, the Director of Procurement in the County, who was taken to task over the awarding of tenders.
It was alleged that two companies with similar names were awarded tenders amounting to millions of shillings without following the due process, with the County Assembly's legal counsel claiming that companies founded in 2017 were awarded tenders in 2018, despite not having been in existence for the required period of time.
There was also confusion over which company, Velocty or Velocity, was awarded a tender in the County, with Otieno stating that the contract with the wrong spelling was drawn by the legal team, which still captured the typo.
He maintained that the actual company is Velocty and not Velocity, and that they may have overlooked the typo due to time and volumes of the document.
As a procurement professional, Otieno clarified that he knows and abides to procurement rules, and that the allegation that there were two parallel HMS systems in the ministry of Health were false.
Two employees of the County Government, Pauline Kamau and Gichira Wayne, featured prominently during the proceedings for chairing evaluation committees, but Otieno told the committee that there was nothing wrong with the two being nominated to chair the evaluation committees.
The witness maintained that the County didn’t incur any loss in the said allegations, even as Lawyer Kamotho Waiganjo requested that they be allowed to introduce tender documents to correct payment dates discrepancies.
After Waiguru failed to submit her passports as directed by the Committee, Committee Chairperson Cleophas Malala directed that the counsel for the Governor must “forthwith provide clear copies of the documents to the satisfaction of the Committee.
The Committee also ruled that the County Assembly never requested for the Governor to be summoned to give evidence, citing the rules of fair hearing that do not allow persons accused to be compelled to give evidence.
