Principal Secretary State Department for Wildlife; Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife & Heritage Silvia Museiya during the interview at her office in Nairobi on October 17, 2023.
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How demos in Germany forced PS Silvia Museiya to spend Sh804,000 on taxi fares
What you need to know:
- Ms Museiya was in Bonn between February 27 and March 5 to attend a conference on shark conservation.
- At the time, some German citizens paralysed the transport industry in protest at the rising cost of living.
Kenyans paid €5,180 (Sh804,791) to facilitate Tourism PS Silvia Museiya’s movements in Germany in February, an expenditure the bureaucrat has now blamed on a transport strike in the country.
While the figure would normally be a curiosity for local movements, Ms Museiya said in an interview with the Nation that transport strikes crippled movements in Germany at the time and she had to travel the last 173 kilometres of her trip to Bonn by road.
Ms Museiya was in Bonn between February 27 and March 5 to attend a conference on shark conservation. At the time, some German citizens paralysed the transport industry in protest at the rising cost of living.
Flights to Cologne Bonn Airport were diverted to Frankfurt. Ms Museiya now says it took the intervention of Kenya's ambassador to Germany to arrange a connecting flight to Bonn, where the PS was due to attend a conference on shark conservation.
The same travel agent also transferred Ms Museiya from her hotel to the World Conference Centre and back for the days she was in Germany.
"There was a strike at Cologne Bonn Airport and so we all landed in Frankfurt. We spoke to the Ambassador in Germany for me to be moved from Frankfurt to Bonn. The Ambassador sent a known travel agent. It was almost three-and-a-half hours. We had to make use of taxis, and that is what shot up the prices," said Ms Museiya.
Internal documents from the Tourism ministry had pointed to possible overspending by the PS on travel, but Ms Museiya now insists she has accounted for every penny of her trips to Germany, India and the UK.
In Tuesday's interview, Ms Museiya claimed that some individuals were cherry-picking documents to create a false narrative in a bid to oust her from office.
The Treasury approved the request, according to a document dated and stamped April 4, 2023.
On April 5, Head of Public Service Felix Koskei wrote to then Tourism CS Penninah Malonza saying that Ms Museiya had been cleared to attend the launch of the International Big Cat Alliance as Kenya was a founding member.
The event was to start on April 7 and end on April 12. Ms Museiya left on April 9 and returned on April 11.
She says she returned the allowances of Sh226,000 for the days she was not in India.
On her second trip in June, Ms Museiya was supposed to leave Nairobi on June 4 and return on June 15. However, she left on June 8 and returned on June 11. Allowances totalling Sh950,515 had been released to the PS for eight days.
Ms Museiya insists that she paid over Sh475,000 for the days she was not in Germany.
Ms Museiya, a former nominated MCA, is the youngest PS in President William Ruto's administration.
On October 3, President William Ruto banned civil servants from non-essential foreign travel in a bid to cut his administration's expenditure.
Head of the Public Service Felix Koskei issued a memo stating that the government will not reimburse expenses incurred by state officials during travel for benchmarking, study visits, training, research, academic meetings and symposia.
Mr Koskei also listed conferences, public meetings, side events, exhibitions and meetings of committees and associations.
Just a month earlier, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had criticised Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries for undertaking several foreign trips. Apart from costing the taxpayer, Mr Gachagua added that the numerous foreign trips were hampering the effective holding of Cabinet meetings.
Ms Museiya has denied any misappropriation of funds in her ministry, claiming that there is a targeted attack aimed at frustrating her out of office.
The Tourism PS, who is in charge of the wildlife portfolio, has dismissed allegations that she is operating an Equity Bank account without National Treasury approval as required by the Public Finance Management Act.
She provided copies of a request to National Treasury dated March 28, 2023 to open an account specifically for human-wildlife conflict compensation. The letter was stamped as received by the National Treasury.
