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A Senate oversight committee wants nine water agencies disbanded for alleged misappropriation of public funds running into billions of shillings.

Senators also asked Water Cabinet Secretary Zachary Njeru to justify the increase in domestic, public and livestock water use charges from 50 cents to Sh5 per cubic metre of abstracted water and evidence of parliamentary approval and gazettement of supporting regulations.

The Senate County Public Accounts and Special Funds Committee said the water sector is a devolved function and questioned why the national government is still holding on to the management of the water agencies.

Ledama ole Kina (Narok) said water agencies had accumulated debts running into billions of shillings and wondered where the money that was supposed to repay the loans went since the projects that the money funded had been completed and were generating income.

“I would like to inform Njeru who is two weeks old in the ministry that the water sector is in a total mess. He should consider either scrapping or overhauling the water works agencies since we do not understand why there are debts running into billions of shillings with no clear repayment plans,” said Olekina.

Committee chair Godfrey Osotsi (Vihiga) said eight out of the nine water agencies did not demonstrate involvement of counties and wondered how they were expected to pay back loans for assets which were not in their name.

“None of the water works agencies has shown the committee clear handover agreements to the counties and water service providers which were supposed to indicate clear loan repayment plans. This is one of the reasons why loan arrears are running into billions of shillings,” said Osotsi.

The Senators also asked Njeru to tell the committee how the Ministry ensures value for money in the projects undertaken by the regional waterworks development agencies since there were concerns that taxpayers money may not have been prudently used in some instances.

In his response, Njeru told the committee that the ministry was undertaking economic and financial analysis on all projects and programmes to determine their viability, procuring through open competitive bidding in all projects besides ensuring that all contracts implemented have contract implementation teams appointed in compliance with the law.

“The Ministry of Water ensures that there is continuous monitoring and evaluation during project implementation to ensure compliance with contract requirements and specifications and to ensure that project objectives are met,” said Njeru.

He said water works development agencies were tasked to undertake the development, maintenance and management of the national public water works within their areas of jurisdiction.

“The nine water works development agencies across the country provide technical services and capacity building to county governments and water service providers within their areas as requested and provide the Cabinet Secretary technical support in the discharge of his functions,” said Njeru.

According to the CS, the agencies operate the water works and provide water services until such a time that the responsibility for operations and management of waterworks are handed over to a county government.

He said water agencies provide reserve capacity for the purposes of providing water services.
“This Committee would like to know the circumstances that may lead to a regional waterworks development agency working in the jurisdiction of another since we do not understand why this is happening and whether there are some political considerations involved,” asked Osotsi.

Njeru told the committee that for donor-financed water works, implementation framework is governed by the project appraisal document which is prepared in line with the rules of the specific development partner and approved by the board of the relevant development partner.

Njeru said the African Development Bank (ADB) supports Kenya Towns Water and Sanitation programme, adding that the Athi cluster comprises projects within Athi Water, Tanathi Water and Coast Waterworks areas while the Tana cluster areas comprises projects within Tana and Northern Water Works areas.

“The National Treasury signs a financing agreement with development partners and in turn, National Treasury also signs a subsidiary agreement with regional development agencies. The agencies sign implementation framework agreements with the lead agency being the employer and other agencies being project managers,” said Njeru.