Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary has denied any wrongdoing in authorizing payments made just days to elections. The former CS insists that whatever withdrawal he authorized was within the law and allegations leveled against him by the controller of budgets are baseless.

In a statement seen by Kamati, Mr Yatani accuses the controller of budgets for making false statements to the effect that he coerced her to expedite the withdrawal of the funds for theft.

He accuses her of trying to soil his otherwise good name and even threatens to file a suit against her.

“Allegations by the controller of budgets that I exerted some pressure on her to make some payments while serving as Treasury CS were false malicious and actionable in law” read part of the statement.

” Her submissions to parliament depicted my actions as Treasury CS as designed to facilitate the theft of public funds. This depiction is libelous and defamatory to my character and professional service to the public in many capacities” said the former CS

He went further and disclosed that he has instructed his lawyers to study her submissions so that they advice him accordingly as he prepares a lawsuit.

The former CS also weighed in on the said transaction saying that it was just a regular payment which he was facilitating as per his powers as Cabinet Secretary.

Article 233 of the 2010 constitution allows the Treasury CS to spend public funds on something he or she deems necessary without the approval of parliament. This was help during times of emergency and parliament was supposed to approve the transaction post-facto within two months

The CS defended the move saying that it was during a state of emergency as they were funds meant for the maize and fuel subsidies. The subsidies were supposed to cushion Kenyans against the high cost of living occasioned by the ongoing drought.

He also questioned why there was interest in the 15 billion transaction calling it sneaky while was just a part of the 127.5 billion which has been approved by the national treasury even as most of it was disbursed during this current regime’s term in office. They all followed the same procedure in the transaction.