HON RAILA ODINGA WILL NOT HONOUR THE INVITATION TO TREASURY OVER EURO BOND:
Hon Raila Odinga has learnt from the media that the Cabinet Secretary to the National Treasury Mr. Henry K Rotich and the Principal Secretary to the National Treasury Dr Kamau Thugge have invited him to their offices on Friday, 4th December 2015 at 10.00 am where they will make available both in hard and soft copies information on the Sovereign Bond that the CORD leadership asked for yesterday.
Mr Odinga is happy to note that the information is available, but regrets that the same information has been unnecessarily withheld not only from the general public but also the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee.
He wishes to remind the National Treasury bosses that he was not seeking this information for his private satisfaction. As he indicated in his letter of 1st December 2015, Mr Odinga asked the Treasury and all the other institutions notified yesterday, to make the information available to the public in conformity with the officer’s obligations under Article 35 of the Constitution.
The relevant provisions of Article 35 of the Constitution stipulates that “Every citizen has the right of access to information held by the State and that the State shall publish and publicize any important information affecting the nation.â€
It is Mr Odinga’s position that the only way the officials of the National Treasury can discharge their constitutional obligation in this matter is by publishing and publicizing answers to the questions that were laid out to them in the demand letter.
Mr Odinga is of the view that an invitation to him to peruse the documents at the Treasury , whether he is accompanied by the media or not, is not a way to adhere to the express mandates of the Constitution with regard to public officers’ accountability to the public.
Mr Odinga will therefore not honor the invitation to Treasury and reiterates the need for the Treasury officers to understand that he was not seeking the information for his private satisfaction. He wants Treasury to comply with Article 35 of the Constitution of Kenya and make public and publicize the information on Euro Bond.
A letter to this effect has been dispatched to Mr Rotich and Dr Thugge.
DENNIS ONYANGO
DECEMBER 2, 2015.
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