Margaret Nyakang’o is the State Controller of Budget. She was appointed to the office in December 2019 after being nominated by former president Uhuru Kenyatta and being vetted and approved by parliament.
Here is her career as told by WoK.
Margaret Nyakang’o Age And Education
Born in 1959, she holds a Master of Business Administration- Strategic Management Option from the University of Nairobi and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Liverpool. She is also a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Sacco Professional.
Margaret Nyakang’o Career
The state controller of budget first worked as the principal auditor at the Controller and Auditor General’s office from 1983 to 1994.
She has also worked in different places including: Bob Morgan Services Limited, Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, Lake Basin Development Authority, Mitum Business Consulting Limited, and Harambee Sacco society.
From 2008 to 2018, she served as the director of finance and administration at the Kenya National Bureau of Standards. Prior to her appointment in December 2019, she worked as a lecturer of public sector finance at Kenya College of Accounting.
Tenure as Budget Controller
As the controller of budget, she is tasked with approving the release of funds from the main account of the government (the consolidated fund services) to ministries, counties and other state agencies.
During her tenure, she has called out alleged discrepancies in the running of her office. In November, she said the national treasury had inflated her salary budget three times contrary to her earnings.
“I’m all alone. So I asked them why is the budget showing three times what my annual salary was. And it was like that for all the state officers. I have not received the answer to date,” she said partly while appearing before the National Dialogue Committee.
March this year while appearing before the Parliamentary Public Petitions Committee, she said she was put under pressure to release Ksh15 billion before the 2022 general elections.
In September ,she revealed that 83 per cent of collected revenues were going towards debt repayment. She also added that the government expenditure was too much.
The report also stated that the country’s limited financial crisis is being made worse by the government officials’ and their delegations’ domestic and international travel budgets.
According to the report, state officials spent Ksh20 billion on both domestic and international travel. The National Assembly was the biggest spender, spending Ksh4.8 billion on travel within the country and an additional Ksh1.5 billion abroad.
Margaret Nyakang’o Arrest
On Tuesday 5th December 2023, she was arrested in Mombasa. Among the charges were: conspiracy to defraud, operating a Sacco without a licence and forgery.
With this igniting an online squabble, Hon. Martha Karua said Margaret was being targeted after revealing financial irregularities in the government.
