The National Assembly Public Accounts Committee is looking into why the former President Mwai Kibaki used his influence to secure relatively expensive scholarships for his grand children.
Appearing before the committee on Monday, Former Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura defended Kibaki who gave his two grandchildren scholarships at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.
Muthaura said that the former head of state was trying to help his nephew, Philip Githinji after losing his job with Oil Libya.
Githinji’s kids; Ian Nderitu and Sandra Njeri were studying Engineering and Architecture courses at the institution.
“The President wrote to me on this matter and he later varied his earlier communication verbally to have the second student included. I knew Githinji as a nephew to the former President,” Muthaura told the Opiyo Wandayi led committee.
The committee also heard that the amount of money used was high because the two proceeded to take a second degree right after completing the first one.
But the committee members questioned why the retired president used money from the public coffers to help his struggling relatives.
“We assist our extended family through our own pockets but not from public coffers,” Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo stated.
Former Higher Education PS Crispus Kiamba after receiving a letter from Kibaki’s private secretary Nick Wanjohi after which the ministry approved the scholarships.
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