Dr Susan Oyatsi. She sits on the Pending Bills Verification Committee.
In February 2023, Susan Oyatsi was a pariah in the top echelons of the Judiciary, much like the famous stone rejected by the builders in the biblical verse Psalm 118.
Dr Oyatsi was in the midst of a bitter legal battle with her employer, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which she was suing for retaining her as acting finance director for almost seven years.
At the High Court, Oyatsi won the case when Justice Mathews Nduma Nderi ordered that she be appointed as the substantive finance director and be paid Sh13.7 million, which would have been part of her salary.
The JSC challenged the decision in the Court of Appeal, where it is still pending.
The legal battle destroyed whatever was left of the employer-employee relationship, and in 2022 the JSC demoted Oyatsi to assistant finance director and attempted to transfer her to the Kakamega Law Courts.
Instead of reporting to the new station, she found herself without an office in the Supreme Court building, where the accountant had worked for almost a decade.
While she was still coming to terms with what had happened, Oyatsi received a letter that completely changed her fortunes – the head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, was headhunting her.
Within days, she had taken her accounting expertise to the Executive Office of the President to work under Koskei.
Much like the stone that the builders rejected, Oyatsi has now become an important cornerstone, tasked with ensuring that all government ministries, agencies and counties achieve zero-fault audits – a mountain of a task if past reports on government organisations are anything to go by.
In September this year, Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung'u appointed Oyatsi to the Pending Bills Verification Committee.
The committee is tasked with reviewing all debts owed to contractors and suppliers inherited by Kenya's Kwanza administration from former President Uhuru Kenyatta's 10-year tenure, and ensuring that the government does not pay companies that have not delivered goods or services.
She is one of only four women on the committee, which is chaired by former Auditor-General Edward Ouko.
And when President William Ruto presided over the Jamhuri Day celebrations in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Oyatsi was among 193 people who received the prestigious national award of Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS).
Oyatsi is a qualified accountant who joined the Judiciary in July 2013 as the regional assistant director for finance. When the position of director of finance became vacant in 2015, she was appointed in an acting capacity.
During her time at the Judiciary, Oyatsi led the teams that developed the Judiciary's Enterprise Resource Planning system, which helps the arm of government manage its financial affairs.
She also led teams that developed the Judiciary Financial Management Information System (JFMIS) and the e-filing and case management systems.
This earned her praise from former Chief Justice David Maraga.
Oyatsi served on the council of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) from 2014 to 2020.
Despite interviewing twice for the position of finance director at the Judiciary, in 2015 and 2019, the JSC overlooked her among all other candidates. She sued the JSC in 2021, which led to a strained relationship with her employer.
Oyatsi declined to comment on the suit when the Nation contacted her, but confirmed that she is at her new station.
