President William Ruto's government has spent slightly over Ksh6 billion to purchase shares in two development banks.
An audit report on the supplementary budgets has revealed that Kenya made investments in the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank and the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) - between December 2022 and June 2023.
The report by Nancy Gathungu's office indicates that the government spent Ksh5,013,200,450 to buy 2,161 shares at Afreximbank on December 28, 2022.
Two days later, Ruto's administration spent Ksh752,621,101 to purchase 491 Class A shares from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank.
Additionally, on June 12, 2023, Ksh544,133,567 was spent to buy 328 Class A shares from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank.
It was explained that the move was aimed at increasing Kenya's influence in the regional trade banks.
"A review of documents on the purchase of shares revealed that the Government of Kenya bought shares the banks in order to increase its influence and relevance in the bank’s activities.
"This was especially on investment decisions, with the intention of having the banks channel more investments to Kenya," read the report in part.
Notably, the banks are instrumental in supporting development programmes in the region.
For instance, the Afreximbank pledged to support Ruto's 100-dam construction project with funding worth Ksh127 billion.
Telkom Shares Purchase
The auditor also addressed the purchase of Telkom shares that was initiated by former President Uhuru Kenyatta's regime in its sunset days.
According to the report, efforts to establish the deal's finer details were futile because of the various obstacles her office faced during investigations.
"Further, the document review revealed that the Government of Kenya bought back from Jamhuri Holdings Limited, the 60 per cent shareholding earlier relinquished in Telkom Kenya Limited.
"Requests to visit the two banks’ headquarters in Burundi and Egypt, respectively, as well as the registered offices of the company that sold off the Telkom Kenya Limited shares in Mauritius and the United Kingdom were either declined or not responded to," read the report in part.
