MPs have castigated the Ministry of Defence over the Sh2.8 billion in claims awarded against it by the courts relating to road accidents, land grabbing and unfair dismissal by the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).
The claims, categorised as pending bills, were flagged by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu in the Defence Ministry's accounts for the 2022/23 financial year and also include breach of contract claims for medical compensation, constitutional petitions, malicious prosecution, claims for injury and violation of rights.
Of the Sh2.8 billion in outstanding claims, the Ministry of Defence (DoD) has settled Sh20.4 million.
MPs at a meeting of the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) told Defence Principal Secretary Patrick Mariru, who appeared before the committee to answer questions on the audit, that the awards would have been avoided if things were done differently with the interest of Kenyans in mind.
Attempts by PS Mariru to reassure the committee that the Defence Ministry was unhappy with some of the court awards and had challenged them in appeals that were at various stages of processing were rebuffed by the MPs.
In particular, the MPs questioned why the government could not take out insurance for DoD vehicles but ended up paying out huge sums in compensation, something that could have been avoided if the vehicles involved in accidents were insured.
"My concern is the amount of money the MoD is losing through unfair dismissal. If such senior officers feel they have been unfairly dismissed, will they not create instability in the country?" asked Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera.
Dr Otiende Amollo (Rarieda) wondered why the Defence Ministry was involved in so many land disputes, while questioning the amount of money spent on road compensation.
"If you are going to spend so much money on insurance claims, don't you think it would be wise to insure your vehicles? Your vehicles have been involved in so many road accidents," said Dr Amollo, with Funyula Member of Parliament Dr Wilberforce Oundo in agreement.
The Vice Chief of Defence Forces (Lt Gen) John Omenda, who accompanied the PS, defended the Defence Forces on land issues and urged MPs to amend the law to address the loopholes that have put the Defence Forces in a bad light.
"We have serious flaws in the land laws that need to be looked at. The KDF needs enough land for operations and training among other things," said Lieutenant General Omenda as he decried encroachment on KDF land by squatters.
"There is no problem with the land laws but the culture of land grabbing in the country," the Rarieda MP said.
But according to PS Mariru, the Ministry of Defence will only pay the claims once all available appeal mechanisms have been exhausted.
The PS admitted that some of the awards handed down by the courts are colossal, requiring requests to the Treasury for special allocations to pay them.
The PS stated that such allocations are not readily available "due to the constraints of limited resources" and that the Ministry of Defence continues to mitigate the risk by ensuring compliance in order to avoid being sued and by actively litigating the cases brought against it in order to avoid adverse judgments.
"Until the legal remedies available to the MoD are exhausted, some of the judgments remain pending," PS Mariru said, adding that whether the MoD would insure its vehicles "is a discussion that can take place internally".
But even as PS Mariru sought to reassure MPs, the audit notes that "no evidence was provided to differentiate between those cases that are being appealed by the Ministry and other cases that are no longer being prosecuted for various reasons and are therefore considered to be inactive".
However, PS Mariru pointed to a Sh1.5 billion judgment against the Ministry of Defence that was successfully appealed.
"The current procedure is that when the ministry has received notice of a judgment that is due for settlement, subject to exploring all legal remedies, the ministry must obtain written approval from the Attorney General and subsequently the National Treasury to settle the claim," the PS said.
He also acknowledged that the Ministry of Defence has continued to settle those judgments that are not contested or where a negotiated settlement has been agreed with the judgment creditors, "thereby progressively reducing the contingent liability".
