The Council of Governors (CoG) has announced the suspension of engagements with the Senate County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) and the limitation of engagements with the Senate County Public Investment Committee.
In a press release on Monday, February 9, the CoG said appearances before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee have increasingly been marked by alleged extortion, intimidation, and humiliation.
“The Council of Governors notes with great concern the continuous and escalating extortion, political witch-hunt, harassment, intimidation and humiliation of Excellency Governors by certain Senators when they appear before the County Public Accounts Committee,” the statement read.
As a result, the council said governors will no longer appear before CPAC until the matter is resolved through formal talks between the two institutions.
“To this effect, the Council has resolved that Governors will not appear before the CPAC committee until these concerns are addressed through a structured engagement between the leadership of the Senate and the Council of Governors,” the statement added.
Separately, the CoG took issue with repeated summons by the Senate County Public Investment Committee, saying governors are often required to appear multiple times within the same audit cycle to discuss similar investment-related issues.
To address this, the governors resolved to limit their appearances before the investment committee to a single session per audit cycle.
“We note with concern that Governors are required to appear several times before this committee to discuss investment issues, including various funds in the Counties, municipalities, and Individual hospitals.
“In this regard, Governors have therefore resolved that they will only appear once for every audit cycle,” the statement further read.
This comes months after President William Ruto accused senators of turning oversight proceedings into a marketplace.
The standoff escalates long-standing tension between county governments and the Senate, which is constitutionally mandated under Article 96 of the Constitution to oversee counties and protect their interests.
Governors have repeatedly complained that some oversight hearings have turned into adversarial forums rather than accountability mechanisms, while senators have defended their role as essential to safeguarding public funds.
The Senate County Public Accounts Committee examines reports from the Auditor-General on county expenditure, while the Public Investments Committee reviews the management of county-owned entities.
Article 226 requires accountability for public funds, while Article 185 assigns county assemblies a primary oversight role at the county level, creating an overlap that has frequently sparked institutional friction.
The Council of Governors said it is seeking dialogue with Senate leadership to resolve the dispute and restore what it called “mutual respect and professionalism” in intergovernmental relations.
The Senate leadership had not publicly responded to the accusations by the time of publication.
