Busia Senator Andrew Omtatah wants the National Treasury compelled to release monthly IFMIS reports to all 47 Senators, arguing that Parliament cannot continue overseeing county finances only after public funds have already been spent
By Benson Nyangweso, Managing Editor TWV
A motion before the Senate, sponsored by Busia Senator Andrew Omtatah Okoiti, seeks to compel the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury to submit monthly Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) reports for every county government to the Clerk of the Senate, who would then transmit them directly to the Senator representing each county. If adopted, the proposal would strip county governments of one of their greatest protections against scrutiny- time.
The implications would be significant. Senators would no longer have to wait months, or even an entire financial year, to discover how governors and county executives have spent public funds. Instead, they would receive regular updates, enabling them to monitor expenditure as it occurs.
Documents seen by The Weekly Vision show that the motion, titled “Provision of IFMIS Reports for County Governments to the Senate,” was formally received and stamped by the Office of the Clerk of the Senate on 3 March 2026. Records indicate that it had previously been introduced during an earlier parliamentary session but lapsed at the end of the Fourth Session before debate could be concluded. It has since been reintroduced for fresh consideration.
The motion’s revival is notable. Parliamentary motions that lapse rarely return, often disappearing beneath competing legislative priorities. Senator Omtatah’s decision to reintroduce it suggests he regards the issue as far more than procedural housekeeping. In his view, it goes to the heart of whether Senators can effectively protect county resources and hold devolved governments accountable.
The proposal is anchored in Article 96 of the Constitution, which mandates the Senate to represent and protect the interests of counties, and Article 217, which governs the allocation of nationally raised revenue among county governments. Senator Omtatah argues that, although the Constitution assigns the Senate an oversight role, that responsibility has been undermined by the lack of real-time access to IFMIS data showing how county governments spend public funds.
The motion also relies on the Supreme Court’s decision in Council of Governors and 6 Others v Senate (Petition Nos. 24 and 27 of 2019, consolidated), which affirmed that the Senate’s oversight mandate extends to both nationally allocated funds and counties’ own-source revenue. The ruling effectively closes the argument that locally generated revenue lies beyond Senate scrutiny, an important consideration given the substantial income counties raise through levies, fees and other local charges.
Although the concerns raised are not new, the motion presents them in stark terms. It states that Senators are “constrained by lack of access to real-time data from the IFMIS system”, significantly weakening their oversight role. It further argues that reports from the Auditor-General and the Controller of Budget often arrive too late, creating an overwhelming backlog that prevents Parliament from conducting timely and effective scrutiny.
According to the motion, the result is a familiar pattern: counties accumulate pending bills, incur unplanned expenditure and, in some instances, inflate project costs while financial irregularities remain undetected until long after the money has been spent.
This is why the proposal extends well beyond parliamentary procedure. Kenya’s current oversight framework is largely retrospective. The Auditor-General audits expenditure after the fact, while the Controller of Budget’s quarterly reports are released only after each reporting period has ended. By the time irregularities are confirmed, public funds have often been lost, and the officials responsible may have left office. Regular access to IFMIS reports would, at least in theory, shift Senate oversight from post-mortem investigations to continuous financial monitoring, allowing questionable expenditure to be identified while corrective action remains possible.
In practical terms, the motion is straightforward. It calls on the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury to submit monthly IFMIS transaction reports for every county government to the Clerk of the Senate, who would then forward them to the respective county Senator “for information on accountability and transparency”.
The proposal does not seek to establish new institutions or amend existing legislation. Instead, it calls for the opening of an information channel that arguably should have existed since the advent of devolution in 2013. Article 225 of the Constitution already provides for Treasury oversight of public finances through systems such as IFMIS. That the Senate must now seek a formal resolution to obtain routine access to county expenditure data highlights how closely the National Treasury has historically controlled that information.
Providing regular IFMIS access to all 47 Senators would, however, present technical and administrative challenges. The National Treasury is likely to cite concerns relating to data integrity, system capacity and cybersecurity should the proposal proceed. IFMIS is a live financial management platform, and extending routine reporting access to elected representatives, rather than constitutionally established oversight institutions such as the Auditor-General and the Controller of Budget, raises legitimate questions about reporting formats, security protocols and the practical meaning of “real-time” access when the motion specifically proposes monthly reporting.
There is also an undeniable political dimension. For years, delays in financial reporting have effectively insulated both national and county executives from immediate parliamentary scrutiny. A monthly flow of IFMIS data to Senators would substantially reduce that buffer.
For county governments already struggling with mounting pending bills, an issue repeatedly highlighted by both the Controller of Budget and the Commission on Revenue Allocation, monthly Senate access to IFMIS reports could fundamentally alter financial accountability. Expenditure that might previously have escaped scrutiny for months could instead attract parliamentary attention within weeks.
For residents of Busia, Kisumu, Mombasa, Turkana and every other county, the practical significance of the proposal is clear. The officials constitutionally mandated to safeguard county resources would finally have access to information while public money is still being spent, rather than only after it has disappeared.
Whether that ambition survives resistance from the National Treasury, and whether monthly IFMIS reporting proves sufficiently close to the real-time oversight Senator Omtatah has long advocated, will determine the ultimate impact of the motion in the months ahead.
