Gladys Boss defends Kindiki's chopper expenses, says 'he is obligated to move across the country'

This comes after documents from DP Kindiki's office submitted to Parliament intimated that he spent Ksh.153.6 million on chopper trips within 75 days a year.

According to Boss, Kindiki and the President are mandated to traverse the country by their preferred means, and Parliament can scrutinise whether the funds were spent prudently.

"The President and the DP are obligated to travel across the country and follow up on ongoing projects. They cannot be holed up in the city and purport to be the president," she told Citizen TV on Monday.

"All Parliament needs to do is to deliberate with them at the budget-making process, as long as the money is put to good use, it is not about the amount. You need to ask whether good use was put to Ksh.154 million. If they can justify that it was the most efficient and cheap way, then it is okay."

Appearing on the same show, Manyatta Member of Parliament (MP) Gitonga Mukunji, however, opined that the offices are wastefully appropriating money from public coffers.

He argued that the money can be well appropriated for Kenyans in dire need of better government services.

"This money can go to better use. If you look at his schedule, you'll see a trend of just moving around and nothing much to show for it. We need to crack down on government hiring choppers. It is what is inflating these budgets. They should move using roads," he said.

Eldas MP Adan Keynan, however, noted that the nation should wait for a verified report from the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament on the claims, terming them as sensationalised reports.

DP Kindiki's office has been put on the spot over its unjustified ballooning expenditure, after the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee questioned pending bills amounting to Ksh.478 million owed to suppliers and service providers for the financial year 2024/25.

Lawmakers also raised queries over an expenditure of up to Ksh.8 million a day on helicopters, with the office owing Ksh.150 million for chopper services.

This comes a day after MPs unanimously approved an additional Ksh.450 million to the DP's office under the supplementary estimates 1 for the 2025/26 financial year.

According to a report from the Controller of Budget, Kindiki's office used 91%, 2.7 billion, of its initial budget in just under 6 months.

His office has been put in question since 54% of the budget was spent on non-classified expenses.

The matter has raised concerns on why budgets are significantly increasing, proving it is expensive to run the DP's office with taxpayers' monies while the government has claimed it is focused on cutting down on expenses.