DNK International By Our Correspondent,Parliament Buildings.
Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu has come under sharp scrutiny from the Senate watchdog committee over the payment of Sh1.15 billion in pending bills without supporting documentation, raising fresh concerns over financial management in the county.
The Senate County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC), chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, questioned Governor Irungu after it emerged that his administration prioritised settling pending bills incurred during his tenure while neglecting older debts owed to contractors and suppliers from previous administrations.
While examining the Auditor-General’s report for the 2024/2025 financial year, the committee established that pending bills amounting to over Sh1.3 billion out of a total Sh1.64 billion had remained unpaid for more than three years, with no explanation provided for the delays.
According to the audit report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu for the year ending June 30, 2025, the failure to clear the long standing bills was a breach of Regulation 41(2) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015, which requires pending bills to be treated as a first charge.
The report shows that during the period under review, Governor Irungu’s administration paid Sh564 million in pending bills, followed by Sh251.5 million in the current financial year.
In the financial year ending June 2024,Sh456.2 million was paid, while Sh576.2 million was settled in the preceding year.
However, only Sh96.3 million of the old pending bills had been cleared as of December 31, 2025.
Members of the Kajwang’-led committee questioned the governor on why his administration appeared to be favouring newly accumulated pending bills while ignoring older obligations.
“The trend we are seeing here is like the governor can choose to pay his friends while those not loyal to the governor end up not being paid,” said Laikipia Senator John Kinyua.
Tharaka Nithi Senator Mwenda Gataya criticised the county for failing to provide a clear justification, saying the committee had been “treated to a lot of literature but no explanation on why the county government cannot pay the old pending bills first.”
In his response,Governor Irungu admitted that mistakes had been made and pledged to align his administration with the law by prioritising the settlement of older pending bills.
“We take the committee’s advice and where there is a mistake, we shall correct it.
We will come up with an ageing analysis policy on pending bills,” said Irungu, adding that old pending bills would be factored into the county’s payment plans starting this financial year.
The county government was also faulted for recording pending bills worth Sh1.15 billion in its register without essential supporting documents such as contract agreements, requisitions, delivery notes, and local purchase or service orders.
“This is a complex issue and you can find that some people supplied air and are pushing to be paid,” observed Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni.
Governor Irungu told the committee that a validation exercise was underway and that pending bills lacking documentation would be derecognised.
He said bills worth Sh674.7 million had already been supported with documents, while claims amounting to Sh967 million were still undergoing verification.
Further, the county government was criticised for a ballooning wage bill, having spent Sh3.28 billion—about 55 per cent of its total revenue of Sh5.97 billion on employee compensation, far above the legally prescribed threshold of 35 per cent.
Irungu defended the situation by stating that his administration inherited an inflated wage bill from defunct local authorities and the national government through devolved functions in departments such as trade, infrastructure, agriculture and health.
The governor was also put on the spot for paying eight private law firms a total of Sh24.9 million through direct procurement without written approval from the accounting officer or proof of urgency, contrary to Section 91 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015.
Despite the county having an in house legal officer and legal advisor, it still engaged external lawyers without providing evidence of how legal fees were determined, professional opinions guiding the awards, or requisitions from departments seeking the services.
In his defence, Governor Irungu maintained that the law allows for such procurement under specific circumstances.
[DNK-International@January 29,2026]
