The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been put on the spot over expenses in shuttle diplomacy incurred during 2016/17 financial year when Kenya campaigned for a top AU seat.

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Kenya had expressed interest in African Union Commission chairmanship in which current Sports CS Amina Mohamed was the candidate.

Details exposed by the Auditor General shows that a whooping Sh437 million was used, almost Sh52 million in excess of the planned budget.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earmarked Sh385,681,683 on the confidential expenditure linked to campaigns for the then Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed’s bid, for the chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) in the year to June 2017.

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee sought answers from Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Kamau Macharia over the suspicious expenditure.

"AUC campaign expenditure as captured in the initial working schedules, however, stood at Sh437,776,982 which differs from the certified amount by Sh52,095,299," Macharia Kamau, the Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary, told Parliament as quoted by Business Daily.

"This difference relates to the AUC campaigns conducted by the Deputy President and were initially charged under the AUC campaign funds, but were later transferred to State visits expenditure," he added.

Pressed to explain to the Opiyo Wandayi-led committee, Kamau refused to give further details, arguing that it was a confidential budget.

"It is true that the statements on African Union Chairmanship campaigns as supported by the certificate issued by the Cabinet Secretary responsible for the Ministry as required under regulation 101(5) of the Public Financial Management (National Government) Regulations 2015 including, the supporting schedules and documents reflects confidential expenditure totaling Sh385,681,683.50 for the year 2016/2017," Kamau said in submissions to the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Amb Amina Mohamed lost to Moussa Faki of Chad Republic. The two were seeking to replace Dr Dlamini Zuma of South Africa.