KISERIAN: Governors’ allegations against Senate sensationally loaded but lacking in substance

The Council of Governors has threatened to boycott Senate Public Accounts Committee sessions. This move is illegal and immoral by all measures. It is an onslaught on the promise of devolution and an insult to the Kenyan populace.

On Monday, February 9, the CoG threatened to snub CPAC summons, citing allegations of extortion, political witch-hunt, harassment, intimidation and humiliation.

Additionally, they resolved to only appear once per audit cycle before the Senate Public Investment Committee. These allegations are sensationally loaded but hollow in substance.

Article 125 of the Constitution empowers parliamentary committees to summon any person to appear before them for the purpose of giving evidence or providing information.

It also confers powers equivalent to those of the High Court with regard to enforcing attendance of witnesses and compelling the production of documents.

Should the governors actualise their threat, it would amount to a violation of this provision with sheer impunity. The move also risks watering down the spirit of accountability and transparency as enshrined in Articles 10 and 73 of the Constitution.

The allegation of extortion has become a fashionable tagline for anyone who seeks to mudsling the Senate. However, nobody has dared to provide an iota of evidence to prove the same. Whereas it is foolhardy to outrightly dismiss such claims, Kenyans are also hesitant to believe them as the gospel truth without requisite evidence.

The other allegations of harassment, intimidation, humiliation and political witch-hunt are blunt excuses. The embarrassment that governors undergo is self-inflicted, either by presenting scanty information, inability to exonerate themselves from the implications inferred from the Auditor General's reports, or sheer incompetence demonstrated by themselves and their appointees. The CoG's case against CPAC is grossly underwhelming.

President William Ruto coined the 'extortion' claim during the ODM-Kenya Kwanza parliamentary group meeting in August 2025. His 'broad-based' counterpart, the late Raila Odinga, reiterated that governors have no business appearing regularly before Senate committees and suggested that the bulk of county oversight be done by county assemblies.

By dint of these outrageous propositions, it seems that contempt for the Senate is an unwritten 'broad-based' policy. The President's complacency in shaping the CoG's attitude cannot be discounted.

Honouring parliamentary summons is not a favour but a constitutional obligation. The constitution is not a code of suggestions to be complied with or violated at the convenience of the Council of Governors' whims.