Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah now claims Kenya has overpaid its debts and even exceeded the required payment by Ksh.1 trillion.
The legislator of Wednesday, June 7 noted that records in government books show that Kenya has been paying its lenders. However, they have not been updating the country’s debt portfolio over the years.
According to the senator, money has been leaving the 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, 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 stated.
“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.” He added.
Okiya Omtatah while speaking during an interview with Spice FM today alleged that some of the borrowed money has never landed in Kenya’s consolidated fund and instead stored in offshore accounts.
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He further claimed the offshore 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.” He stated.
Moreover, Senator Okiya Omtatah mentioned the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) multibillion project as an example saying 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.
Likewise, Omtatah alleged that the mistake has been happening at the Office of the Auditor General (AG) which is not doing a comprehensive job of checking the balance sheets.
He noted that 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 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,” Omtatah stated.
“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.
Nonetheless, the Busia Senator said that everyone who has sat in the Executive needs to be questioned and a public audit be conducted on government accounts.
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He mentioned President William Ruto, Former president Uhuru Kenyatta, Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u, Former Treasury PS Kamau Thugge as some of the individuals who should be questioned.
“We need to ask where this money goes because it does not just disappear.” He added.
Nevertheless, Kenya’s public debt is expected to reach Ksh.9.4 trillion in June, already surpassing the Treasury’s target of 55 percent of GDP.
