Saturday, May 18, 2024 – Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi had a hard time defending his insatiable appetite for money, even as the country goes through a rough patch.
While appearing before the
Committee on Defence, Intelligence, and Foreign Relations, Mudavadi was
hard-pressed to explain why his docket sought additional funds despite the
Ksh1.74 billion already allocated to the purchase of the London chancery.
MPs questioned Mudavadi's request
for an additional Ksh350 million towards purchasing a new London embassy and
renovating the New York facility.
Kenya has been seeking to
purchase a new office block for its mission in the United Kingdom, following the
expiry of the lease for the chancery for the High Commissioner and staff in
October 2021.
According to lawmakers, the
project stalled despite the monies being allocated because the tender for the
same (purchase of chancery building) was invalidated after Kenya failed to get
a conveyancing lawyer to handle the purchase process.
A previous audit by Auditor
General Nancy Gathungu showed that the country had spent around Ksh58.63
million yearly to rent the chancery in London from 2021 to August 2023.
Thereafter, the price was hiked to Ksh95.18 million.
The audit report by Gathungu
highlighted the poor conditions for some of the buildings that house Kenya's
diplomats.
To mitigate the issue, the
government allocated Ksh2.3 billion for the construction and repairs of Kenyan
embassies situated globally in the 2024/25 budget estimates.
Repair of government properties
in New York is set to cost Ksh841 million, followed by embassies in Lusaka
(Ksh30 million), Mogadishu (Ksh25 million), Rome (Ksh21 million), Washington DC
(Ksh20 million) and Dar es Salaam (Ksh20 million).
Other embassies lined up for
construction include Kinshasa (Ksh20 million), Addis Ababa (Ksh20 million),
Hague (Ksh15 million), Pretoria (Ksh10 million) and Kampala (Ksh10
million).
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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