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Governors now want parliament to pass a law to stipulate the number of bank accounts they should open in the running of county governments.

This is after the Senate opened an inquiry into several ‘illegal’ bank accounts, most of them held at commercial banks, by the county governments.

Governors Fatuma Achani (Kwale) and Ochillo Ayacko (Migori) have been on spot for operating more than 200 bank accounts, with the Auditor General decrying the challenge in auditing the funds in the bank accounts.

While appearing before the Senate Devolution and Inter-Governmental relations Committee, the two Governors told the Senators that there is lack of a legal framework guiding the opening of bank accounts.

According to the county bosses, their administrations opened the accounts after seeking relevant authorisation from the National Treasury, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and other agencies as provided for in the current legislation.

“The Senate and Parliament as a whole should come in and help. There is no legal framework guiding the opening of the accounts,” Achani said.

Development projects

Ochillo and Achani were categorical that they opened the accounts to fulfil conditions by various donors and partners who fund specific programmes and development projects in the counties.

“It gives us a bad name as governors when people say that we have illegal accounts. These are not illegal accounts. We followed the due procedures and the funds held there are audited and accounted for,” Achani told the Wajir Senator Sheihk Abass led committee.

The development comes after Controller of Budget (COB) Margaret Nyakang’o revealed that many counties were operating illegal bank accounts.

According to COB, some Counties are operating more than 300 bank accounts while others have only four like Garissa County.
Section 82 (1)(b) of the Public Finance Management (County Government) Regulations, 2025 stipulates that a state entity which draws over 75 per cent of its resources from the National Exchequer Account shall apply for opening and operating bank accounts at the CBK, unless exempted.

Achani, whose administration operates 213 bank accounts, told the Committee that there are donor conditions under which the accounts were opened.

“Conditional grants as negotiated between the donors and the national government include a condition to open a Special Purpose Account (SPA) and a commercial bank account for operations,” said Achani.