The Senate on Tuesday wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko demanding the arrest of Vihiga Governor Moses Akaranga for allegedly ignoring House summons.
In a petition filed by residents from Vihiga, Akaranga was expected to appear before and be grilled by the Senate Committee on Finance, Commerce and Budget but he failed to attend.
The committee’s temporary chair Migori Senator Wilfred Machage said the House had issued a summons for the governor to appear before it last week but Akaranga had failed, whereupon they had given him another chance.
“Last week, we received a letter indicating he had declined to the summons to appear before the committee on reasons, which the committee found unacceptable. He [governor] leaves us with no option but to follow the constitution,” ruled Machage.
“The committee has no option but to seek the assistance of the DPP and it is now ordered that the Senate Clerk writes to DPP for directions,” he added.
According to the constitution, either House of Parliament including any of its committees has similar powers as the High Court to summon any county official that declines to appear before them on matters under investigations.
The House teams also have the powers of enforcing the attendance of witnesses or compelling production of documents that are deemed important in the investigations of a matter.
Akaranga is being probed on how Sh1.6 billion development funds his government received from the exchequer in 2014-15 had been spent.
Petitioners also want explanation on how money set aside for the Vihiga County Empowerment Fund was used and the reason the Vihiga government incurred accumulative pending bills worth more than Sh2.1 billion.