Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Director General Francis Wangusi on Wednesday conveyed that he had opted to defy a Ksh1 Billion order given by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mr Wangusi told journalists that the CA was not in a position to disburse the fund to the police as directed by the Head of State.
President Kenyatta had instructed the government boss to chip into the Universal Service Fund (USF) and pay the amount to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for the war against cybercrime.
"The money we have for the Universal Service Fund is already committed. I wouldn't really say that we have money to put into other projects if the priority projects have not been completed," Wangusi stated.
[caption caption="CA Director General Francis Wangusi"]
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The director general went on to outline that one of the projects consuming the fund was to connect 78 sub-county territories that are currently not being served by any network.
He added that a further Ksh7 Billion was being channelled to connect schools to broadband across the country.
Wangusi explained that the CA still had a deficit of Ksh70 Billion in its budget for ongoing projects.
The authority receives its funding from government allocations, returns from investments, gifts, donations, grants, endowments and other sources.
USF was instituted in 2009 as a pool of mandatory fees levied on licenced operators in various communications sectors.
CA is therefore mandated to manage the fund on behalf of the government and set up projects that promote communication within the country.
Cybercrime has elicited debates within Parliament in recent weeks as the legislators claim they have been victims of bullies who send obscene photos while others have been conned of thousands of shillings.
[caption caption="ICT CS Joe Mucheru with CA boss Francis Wangusi when they appeared before Parliament for media shut down"]
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