Laikipia Woman Representative Jane Kagiri has urged the enactment of a law to compel outgoing presidents to publicly lay the financial books of the country before each general election, claiming that transparency is the most important element of informed leadership transition.

In an early morning interview on one of the local radio stations on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, Kagiri acknowledged that one of the biggest weaknesses of the former administration was the inability to inform citizens about the financial situation of the country in 2022.

“One mistake we made as a government was failing to take Kenyans through the situation the country was in in 2022. Before we go for every election, we should put in a law that the president at the end of that term needs to put on the table the books of account of the country as it looks,” Kagiri said.

Kagiri has emphasised that it was a wrong step on our part as a government not to show Kenyans the real picture of the country during that time; she said the government should make reforms within its institutions to avoid recurrence of such gaps.

Kagiri, who disclosed that she was an advisor in the old regime, claimed that she has personal experience of the condition of the public finances during the transition. She asserts that the previous government left the current administration with compromised resources.

The lawmaker said that when the current government assumed power, there were empty coffers, and such facts needed to be publicised to enhance accountability and keep the populace in check.

She suggested that a legal system should be put in place to make presidents, upon expiry of their term of office, give a detailed report on the finances of the country before handing over the presidency. This, she argued, was going to not only increase transparency but also create trust between the government and citizens.

Kagiri hails the National Infrastructure Fund

Kagiri has further praised the current administration because it did not abandon the development programmes that its predecessor started, as they are crucial to national development.

She also commended the launch of the Infrastructure Fund, as she termed it, as a timely intervention that shall contribute towards the meeting of the urgent development demands in the country.

The statements by Kagiri are a continuation of the rising debate about fiscal transparency and accountability in the governance process, especially since Kenya still faces economic difficulties and is gearing up for the next electoral processes.