Public servants have been warned against invoking the name of the president when pressed with matters to do with financial transactions.
State House Comptroller Kinuthia Mbugua on Wednesday warned that those dragging the name of the president would be punished by State House.
When faced with questions about procurement irregularities, senior government officers, among them Principal Secretaries and heads of state corporations, have on numerous occasions claimed before parliamentary committees that they have had to go the direct way of tendering on orders from the presidency.
In line with article 135 of the Constitution, the decisions of the President must be in writing, and signed.
“All the accounting officers in government have always been directed not to honour any call claiming to emanate from State House,” Mr Mbugua told the committee chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi.
“We are all accountable as far as the usage of public resources is concerned. I am at State House but I don’t invoke the President’s name when faced with issues. I cannot come here and say I was directed to do this or that,” he said.
His statement comes barely a month after President Uhuru Kenyatta publicly claimed that he has been ignoring phone calls coming from his friends named in various corruption scandals.
The President is keen to leave a good legacy when he retires in 2022, a reason he has been working closely with ODM leader Raila Odinga to close loopholes used by cartels.