‘Those women are our last line of defence’: Onyonka heaps praise on Controller of Budget, Auditor General

Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has come out in defence of embattled Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o and Auditor General Nancy Gathungu amidst their explosive revelations on the government’s shortcomings.

Senator Onyonka, who spoke on Citizen TV’s JKLive Show on Wednesday, heaped praises on the two women for rising above government criticism in defence of the Constitution in their respective professions.

The Senator spoke after President William Ruto’s senior economic advisor Moses Kuria, who was also on the platform, poked holes on the recent report by the Auditor General which painted key government projects such as the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the Hustler Fund in bad taste in the public’s eye.

From his own opinion of the pair, Onyonka outrightly asserted that the two have consistently put the country’s interests ahead, adding that he regards them as his personal heroines.

“When we raised these issues, it shifted to we need to fire these two women…These two, for me, are my heroes; these are the last line of defense in this country. If you look at the issues they are raising, not many of us as men can deal with them,” Onyonka stated.

His sentiments did not sit well with Kuria, who, despite acknowledging Gathungu’s good academic and professional standing, pulled a tribal card against Onyonka, accusing the Senator of defending Nyakang’o because she hails from his Abagusii community.

“I have a lot of respect for Nyakang’o notwithstanding that Senator Onyonka has defended her publicly in the past but on tribal grounds,” Kuria said.

The response by Kuria resulted in a back-and-forth with the lawmaker, who reiterated that his admiration of the Controller of Budget is solely based on her professional conduct.

“Any Kenyan, when you are pushed to the corner, you bring your tribe; there was no tribe here. Has she been a professional who has done her job impeccably? Yes. She happens to be Kisii, and I love her…we are from the same community; it has nothing to do with her profession,” Onyonka argued.

According to the Senator, the ongoing criticism towards the ruling Kenya Kwanza is only aimed at ensuring accountability and transparency for the benefit of Kenyans.

“We are not against any PPPs; we learnt from international best practices and bring them locally here; we want accountability, transparency, fairness, equity which are the principles in the constitution,” he noted.

“My job (as the opposition) is not to stop the government from getting a PPP programme, invite people, why did you pick one company? You want to do single sourcing while you could have got 16 other companies who could have done it at a quarter the price, therefore, we didn’t get value for money.”