• Okiya Omtatah claimed that Kenya has settled all its debts and that the government has even exceeded the required payment by Ksh.1 trillion
• He alleged that records in government books show that Kenya has been paying its lenders but has failed to update its debt portfolio over the years
• The legislator further claimed that some of the borrowed money has never landed in the nation’s consolidated fund and instead stored in offshore accounts
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah on Wednesday claimed that Kenya has settled all its debts and that the government has even exceeded the required payment by Ksh.1 trillion.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah
According to the Senator, records in government books show that Kenya has been paying its lenders but has failed to update its debt portfolio over the years.
In Omtatah’s view, money has been leaving the exchequer (National Treasury) but it is not channeled towards paying the debt and instead inherited by a few individuals.
“Kenya has overpaid its debt by more than Ksh.1 trillion we do not owe anybody anything,” he stated Wednesday morning on Spice FM.
“If you look at the figures on what we have legitimately borrowed and what the government has been paying over the years when you do a balance sheet you find that we have overpaid the debt,” he added.
“When we pay they do not subtract from what has been borrowed. I think a large proportion of it is just being pocketed so what they are trying to do is to tamper around with the few interests so that you look like you have defaulted.”
The firebrand legislator further claimed that some of the borrowed money has never landed in the nation’s consolidated fund and instead stored in offshore accounts.
He argued that the accounts were set up during the Uhuru Kenyatta administration where the Public Finance Management Act was amended to act as a conduit for storing the money.
“Some of these debts did not even reach Kenya it was paid offshore, there was a time the Uhuru government amended the Public Finance Management Act to allow them to make offshore accounts where they would make payments,” he claimed.
“Under the law, all the money should come to the consolidated fund, parliament should then appropriate that money and the controller of budget should appropriate how that money should be spent.”
Omtatah cited an example of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) multibillion project, which he claims that the funds to construct the project were transacted in China yet still recorded as debt in Kenya.
“Take an example of the SGR, not a coin came to Kenya from China all money was paid in Beijing and the debt was factored here and I fought it until the Supreme Court agreed that it is unconstitutional,” he said.
The activist further claimed that the blunder has been occurring at the Office of the Auditor General (AG) which is not doing a comprehensive job of checking the balance sheets.
According to Omtatah, the money is not being stolen through expenditure but in the revenue allocation stage where the AG does not cross-check funds disbursed from the Treasury to the recipient.
“They (AG) audit government books like stand-alone they do not crosscheck. When they go to audit the Treasury, Treasury simply says Ksh.10 left the consolidated fund but they do not go to check whether whatever has been declared has been received on the other end,” he said.
“This is where you and I come in where we say that this Auditor General is just a mechanical thing, you and me who pay the taxes can we follow [through] and say that this Ksh.10 that left Treasury [did it go] to where it was intended to go?” he posed.
“Because they (AG) will go to the other side and ask how much did you receive and they say Ksh.6. They will audit him for Ksh.6 and they have audited the Treasury for Ksh.10 without connecting the two to confirm the transaction.”
He, therefore, opined that all individuals who have sat in the Executive need to be brought to question and a public audit be conducted on government accounts.
He stated that individuals like President William Ruto, Former president Uhuru Kenyatta, Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u, Former Treasury PS Kamau Thugge among others should be brought into question.
“Outside institutions we must audit the public debt and people like Professor Njuguna, Thugge and all these people who have been in money must be brought before the public to answer where is this money,” he said.
“We need to ask where does this money go because it does not just disappear.”
Kenya’s public debt is expected to reach Ksh.9.4 trillion in June, already exceeding the Treasury’s target of 55 percent of GDP.
In April, the National Treasury began a nationwide public hearing to raise the current public debt ceiling and instead base it on the country’s GDP.
Lobbying for the move, CS Ndung’u proposed tying the debt limit to no more than 55 percent of the country’s GDP in order to increase borrowing capacity.
This makes borrowing a top priority for the government, which is currently mired in a funding quagmire due to lower-than-expected revenue collection.
Treasury has already sought services from qualified firms to assist it in launching a new Eurobond before the end of the fiscal year ending June 2024.
