The words spoken by the Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich, in a rejoinder to the former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga’s advise at the launch of the Tax Payers month in Nairobi on October 1, 2018, were absolutely in very bad taste and they displayed what kind of leaders there are in Kenya today.
At the function in Nairobi, Kenya, Willy Mutunga who once made history when he revealed that Kenya was run by Mafia-Style Cartels, advised Kenya to set up an independent public inquiry into the sh.5 trillion debt amassed since independence.
Kenya is run by mafia-style cartels, says chief justice
He said and I quote, ” We need a commission of inquiry into public debt since independence”. His historical revelation of Mafia-style cartels has been supported by every Kenyan except for those within the cartels. In a swift rejoinder to his advice, however, Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich dismissed the need for an inquiry saying records on Kenya’s public debt are publicly available since independence,
He added that the government has been transparent in how it has used borrowed funds and I quote, “All the public information is available, the government has been transparent”. This is absurd, especially when it is on record that Kenya is losing Sh608 billion to corruption every year. Henry Rotich is misleading Kenyans into his alleged transparency nature of the management of public funds in Kenya. His statement is a portrayal of the level of impunity in the Kenya system of governance, and how prepared most of those in leadership positions in Kenya, are in protecting and shielding impunity. https://www.nation.co.ke/business/Ex-CJ-pricks-Treasury-with-debt-audit-appeal/996-4786956-soyebd/index.html
According to the report in the Kenya Daily Nation dated October 1, 2018, the Treasury projections show that, President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to accumulate nearly Sh2.13 trillion more in public debt by the time his final term ends in August 2022, which will then place Kenya at nearly shs7.17 trillion total debt in the year ending June 2022.
Although all the previous commissions of inquiries into corruption in Kenya, yielded no tangible outcome, there was no single element in the Treasury Secretary rejoinder, which indicated that Kenya was any where close to being corrupt. To him, Kenya has all along been immaculate in governance and in the management of public funds, and that corruption in Kenya is just utopia, because it does not exist there. He does not see the dangers posed by China’s uncontrolled loans to Kenya.
China is Kenya’s largest creditor with 72% of total bilateral debt. Unlike the West, China which never cares whether the loans it gives out are looted or are used well, has already proved to be prepared to use all means to recover its loans. With the rate at which Kenya is running for loans from China, most of which becomes part of the Sh608 billion looted every year, and with the kind of leaders like Henry Rotich who provide false pictures of the management of public funds in Kenya, there are no chances whatsoever that Kenya will escape the wrath of China’s uncouth methods of loans recovery and hence the possibility of more poverty to the Kenyan people, unless Kenyans wake up from sleep now and acts decisively, before it is too late.
Dr. Isaac Newton Kinity
Former Secretary General
Kenya Civil Servants Union.
How Firm And How Strong Impunity is In Kenya
