Senators grill Governor Kachapin over audit irregularities in West Pokot
By Ndiritu Wanjiru, March 11, 2026The Senate has put the leadership of West Pokot County, led by Governor Simon Kachapin, under intense scrutiny following revelations of financial and operational irregularities flagged in the latest audit report.
On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, the parliament confirmed on their social media accounts that the Senate County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee questioned Governor Simon Kachapin and his executive team about problems that the Office of the Auditor General brought up about the county’s financial year 2024/2025.
Senator Eddy Oketch, who is the chairperson of the committee, asked why the county changed its laws to let 29 per cent of the money made by the facilities go to departmental operations instead of staying in the facilities that make it.
“The national FIF law is superior to your county laws, and allocating percentages to departmental activities while your referral hospital lacks a basic defibrillator is defeatist and a direct violation of Section 7 of the Act. These funds must be retained and spent by the facility that collects them, not backchannelled to the ministry where they lose their intended impact,” Oketch said.
The parliament has noted that one of the main issues that came up was the misappropriation of Facility Improvement Financing (FIF) funds that were supposed to go to individual hospitals. The audit showed that Kapenguria Referral Hospital still has a lot of equipment problems, such as not having MRI and CT scanners. However, more than Ksh12.3 million that was collected at the hospital had been sent to the County Revenue Fund.
The committee also raised concerns over rejected health insurance claims linked to administrative lapses. The audit found that 16 of the 4,693 claims submitted by the referral hospital were denied because the patient information was incorrect and important documents, like theatre notes, were missing.
Kachapin’s defense
Governor Simon Kachapin defended his administration in response, saying that the transition to the Social Health Authority system had caused operational problems.
“We are retraining our claims staff and sensitising them on standard operating procedures to reduce these errors, but the national Ministry of Health frequently introduces new requirements that make it difficult for our teams to maintain uniformity across the counties,” Kachapin said.
The governor also said that the delayed mortuary project had been affected by heavy rain that made the site inaccessible. However, he assured the committee that the project was now finished and that steps were being taken to fix staffing problems.
The audit also found that the Kapenguria Water Company was operating without a valid licence and not installing meters for almost 60 per cent of its customers. This, according to the governor, led to a bad audit opinion. At the same time, people were upset with the Cooperative Development Fund for not being able to get back more than Ksh42 million in unpaid loans.
The Senate committee directed Governor Kachapin to submit written responses on unresolved queries and to ensure county legislation aligns with national financial management standards.
Governor George Natembeya and his coastal counterparts are among those who have recently been grilled by the Senate over water company issues.