Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah says Kenya has settled all its debts and that the government has even exceeded the required payment by Ksh.1 trillion, unlike what Kenyans are made to believe – that the country is on the verge of a financial shutdown due to pending loans.
Speaking on Wednesday during an interview with Spice FM, Senator Omtatah said records in government books show that Kenya has been paying its lenders but has failed to update its debt portfolio over the years.
“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 senator explained that some of the borrowed money has never landed in the nation’s consolidated fund and instead stored in offshore accounts.
He noted 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 said the money used for the construction of the multi-billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project was one of the debts already paid 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.
