Parliament has summoned Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo to explain the decision to cut more than Sh100 million that had been allocated to the Inua Jamii programme.
The National Assembly’s Committee on Social Protection invoked provisions of Article 125 of the Constitution to compel Dr Kiptoo to appear before it after skipping three invitations.
Dr Kiptoo now risks arrest and frog matching to Parliament or a Sh500,000 fine should he fail to honour the summons.
‘’We called a meeting that never took place last Friday because Dr Kiptoo was absent. We rescheduled the meeting to today Wednesday December 4, 2o24 but again the PS is not present to discuss this extremely important issue of claw back of budget for Inua Jamii,’’ Alice Nganga, who chairs the committee said.
‘’Because the PS has decided to send us the officer, we sent back last Friday Mr Johnah Wala, the Treasury director Accounting Services without any apology, the committee has resolved to invoke the provisions of Article 125 of the Constitution and Standing Order 131 to issue summons to the Principal Secretary National Treasury. This meeting stands adjourned.’’
The committee did not specify the date within which Dr Kiptoo is required to honour the summons but said the summons to be issued will specify the date and time.
Dr Kiptoo, like was the case last Friday, sent Mr Wala to represent him at the meeting that was also attended by Social Protection and Senior Citizens Services Principal Secretary Joseph Motari.
Mr Wala informed the committee that he had written responses from Dr Kiptoo but not a written apology forcing the committee to proceed to issue summons.
Dr Kiptoo was expected to explain to the committee the reasons behind the clawback of more than Sh100 million meant for the Inua Jamii cash transfer programme.
The programme provides cash transfers to the most vulnerable members of society, targets orphans and vulnerable children, people with severe disabilities, and the elderly.
Beneficiaries of the programme receive a Sh2,000 stipend monthly from registered financial institutions.
Last week, Ms Nganga (Thika Town) took exception to the decision by Dr Kiptoo to snub the meeting when Mr Motari honoured the invitation. Mr Motari was present on Wednesday.
“This meeting was called to deal with the funding mechanisms for Inua Jamii. But the PS Treasury has sent a director who has admitted that he did not know exactly what was to be transacted,” Ms Nganga said.
“This meeting cannot proceed until the PS is here. We do not sit on Friday but we decided to find time this after to deal with this serious matter of clawback on funding to Inua Jamii programme.”
Dr Kiptoo was required to explain why more than Sh100 million had been returned to the National Treasury for Inua Jamii which is administered under the State Department for Social Protection.
The Social Protection Ministry transfers the money to beneficiaries through the financial institutions but the Treasury requires that the undisbursed or uncollected cash be returned to the exchequer which is then reallocated to other projects.
The State Department for Social Protection wants the money to be retained by the Ministry for transfer to other new needy beneficiaries. Currently, those registered with Inua Jamii, orphans, vulnerable children, and persons with disabilities have to visit financial institutions to access their money.
About six banks, which had been contracted to pay the beneficiaries, sub-contracted bank agents in the wards and sub-counties to disburse the funds to the beneficiaries.
The committee said the clawed-back money would have benefited more than 500,000 new beneficiaries had the cash been transferred back to the State Department for Social Protection.
The MPs wanted to question Dr Kiptoo on the reasons why the Treasury is retaining the clawed-back Inua Jamii funding.
“The PS for National Treasury is notorious for snubbing invitations of not just this committee but all other committees of Parliament including that of Finance and National Planning,” Tim Wanyonyi, the MP for Westlands said.
“He always delegates junior officers and we need to decide on a committee to send back this director until we get the PS himself here.” Committee vice chairperson Hillary Kosgey said there is no Principal Secretary that is more important than the other and accused Dr Kiptoo of contempt of Parliament.
“If this PS is big-headed, then we can invoke provisions of the Standing Orders and the Constitution to compel his attendance,” Mr Kosgei said.
“The issue we are dealing with is an issue that cannot be delegated to anybody else other than Dr Kiptoo. We need him here.”
