Interior and Co-ordination of National Government Principal Secretary (PS) Karanja Kibicho has made a damning revelation about the state of corruption in the government.
Through a sworn affidavit dated June 8, the PS indicated that runaway corruption and massive plunder of public resources in Kenya has grown by an alarming 240 percent over the past five years.
PS Kibicho elaborated how taxpayers have lost billions of shillings mainly due to flawed procurement processes leading to the massive looting.
[caption caption="File image of Interior Principal Secretary (PS) Karanja Kibicho"]
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The admission by the PS was done in response to a decision by the Employment and Labour Relations court suspending the scheduled fresh vetting of the procurement officers and heads of accounting units that will include a lie-detector test.
Kibicho narrowed down on major scandals including the illegal purchase of land by the National Housing Corporation (NHC) at a cost of Ksh400 million.
Another flawed procurement highlighted is the purchase of a Computerised Conference Management System (CCMS) at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre that amounted to Ksh597 million.
The purchase of two ferries by the Kenya Ferry Services at a cost of Ksh1.9 billion was also among the scandals that saw the PS argue on the need to vet all heads of procurement and accounting units in ministries, departments, agencies and state corporations.
Besides, there was the irregular purchase of firefighting equipment worth Ksh75 million which was marred by controversy.
Others cases that Kibicho quoted include procurement of a faulty printer at the Kenya Bureau of Standards for Ksh300 million, a scandalous greenhouse project in Kirinyaga under the Youth Enterprise Fund which led to the loss of Ksh300 million.
[caption caption="Youth and Gender Principal Secretary Lillian Omollo and NYS Director General Richard Ndubai"]
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The PS also noted three cases at the National Youth Service (NYS) where Ksh58 million was lost in the irregular procurement of machines and Ksh65 million plundered in the construction of a library and ICT resource centre.
Equally, Kibicho revealed that the government has lost Ksh302 million in consultancy fees during the 5 years period.
The rise in corruption cases in the country from 3,355 before the Jubilee administration took power in March 2013 to the current 8,044 cases may have informed President Uhuru Kenyatta's order for fresh vetting during the 55th Madaraka Day celebrations at Kinoru stadium in Meru.
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