The second section of the majority of audit reports of entities in Kenya reads: “Basis for Opinion: We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements section of our report”. An auditor can make this claim only is she has followed all the ISAs applicable to the audit.
Th e Council of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) decided in a meeting in 1997 to adopt International Accounting Standards, now International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), and International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) with eff ect from 1 January 1999. The Council decided that it would cease developing Kenyan Accounting and Auditing Standards for a number of
reasons. In particular it had become clear to the Council that developing home-grown standards was not putting its limited resources to best use: the Council communicated this decision to the members of ICPAK in the following terms: “Updating Kenyan Standards to comply with International Standards
and to cover areas which are not covered currently is a monumental task. eInstitute just does not have the resources, human or nancial, to carry out this task to a satisfactory level of pro ciency;
and even if it did, what purpose would this serve? Council believes that an
e ort to update Kenyan Standards will merely reproduce International Standards under a di erent name. In the circumstances therefore, the resources available to ICPAK could be put to better use if they were used to interpret International Standards, to assess their implication on local practice and, where
necessary, to issue technical bulletins and local guidance on those Standards”. I repeat this statement because I have seen and heard arguments by some Kenyans that we should have continued to develop Kenyan Accounting Standards: recently I listened to part of a speech in the Scottish Parliament given by a young lady in Gaelic, the language of Scotland; I and all the
