Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya is now facing arrest after he failed to appear before the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment committee on Thursday.
The Governor had been summoned on multiple occasions to appear before the committee to answer claims of financial misappropriation in his county but ignored all summons.
The committee, on Monday, adopted and confirmed all the recommendations by the Auditor General in the 2013/2014 report on the use of funds in Kakamega County.
The report by the Auditor General implicated Oparanya and senior county officials of misappropriation and irregular diversion of county funds and contravening the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.
The report further accused the governor and his officers of missing proper record of debtors and evidence of efforts to recover over Sh10.2 Million lost in the county.
The committee’s move to adopt the report means that the governor and all other officials mentioned in the report will be held responsible for failure to effectively use public funds.
The Committee’s Chairperson John Lonyangapuo indicated that the governor, in ignoring the summons, was denying the people of Kakamega their right to know how their funds were spent.
"It is unfortunate that Mr Oparanya has totally refused to appear. He should know that the people of Kakamega County have a right to know where the money went to," he stated.
Other members of the commitee including Senators Boni Khalwale (Kakamega), Kimani Wamatangi (Kiambu) and Liza Chelule (Nominated) emphasised that the Governor was not above the law, therefore, should be held responsible.
The committee indicated that it will write and forward the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions(DPP), Department of Criminal Investigations(DCI) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to pursue the county officials.
