Former National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani claims that immediately after the 2022 general elections, the deputy president's office made a similar request for the disbursement of Ksh.1.59 billion for his office use.

Yatani claims that financial constraints prevented him from fully granting the request, which included Ksh300 million to purchase cars for office use.

PHOTO | COURTESY Ukur Yatani

"It included Ksh300 million for cars, and Ksh330 million for hospitality, a request that I did not grant in full but considered an amount of Kshs 500 Million due to the financial constraints we had at that time," says Yatani.

This statement comes after the budget controller, Margaret Nyakang'o, accused him of conspiring g to steal over 15 billion of public funds. The budget controller claims that she was forced to transfer billions of Kenya shillings by yatani just days before the 2022 general elections. she said that she was threatened to approve Ksh.6 billion for Telco acquisitions and Ksh.9.5 billion from the annuity fund.

Yatani says that Article 223 of the constitution allows the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury to authorize expenditures that have not been appropriated by Parliament in certain circumstances, adding that once such funds are committed, "Article 223 (2) provides that parliamentary approval is sought post-facto within a period of two months."

PHOTO | COURTESY DP Rigathi Gachagua

Former National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani said he would take legal action against the budget controller Margaret Nyakang'o for alleging that yatani facilitated the theft of public funds.

Yatani says that the budget controller should face the full extent of the law if she feels like what she did was illegal. yatani added that As an independent office, the Controller of Budget owes Kenyans an explanation as to why she released the exchequer to the Accounting officers of ministries if, in her view, they were illegal, not forgetting that she gave her approvals in writing both to the National treasury and in her official communication to the National Assembly