Kenyan's tax payers will continue suffering

About a quarter of Kenya's Sh2.2 trillion budget
cannot be adequately accounted for, the auditor
general has said.
Commentators said the report by Auditor General
Edward Ouko's office exposed the scale of official
corruption in Kenya, east Africa's biggest economy,
which investors often cite as a hurdle to doing
business there.
In the report released late on Tuesday, the auditor
general said 2014/15 spending worth Sh450 billion
was not properly accounted for, demonstrating
"persistent and disturbing problems in collection
and accounting for revenue".
"Corruption thrives in a big way in government
offices, yet little is being done to arrest the
situation," he said.
"We must end the culture of misuse of state
resources. Those implicated must be seized and
punished."
Spending cited in the auditor's report included
Sh113 billion in "unconfirmed subscriptions" to
international bodies, and an unexplained over-
payment of Sh38 billion by the Transport Ministry.
The figure did not include an audit of county
spending, which was done separately.
"As reported under the respective revenue
statements, the discrepancies are mainly due to
unexplained and unreconciled differences between
revenue statement balances and the exchequer
records maintained by the National Treasury," the
report said.
The report was released shortly after Obama called
on Kenyans at the weekend to do more to end graft
to help the economy grow faster.
"Here in Kenya, it's time to change habits, and
decisively break that cycle, because corruption holds
back every aspect of economic and civil life," said
Obama, whose father was Kenyan.
Obama said the government had to show it was
tackling corruption with prominent prosecutions,
adding that it was an issue that also needed to be
addressed elsewhere in Africa.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said the fight against graft
was a priority when he took office in 2013, but
critics complain that too little has been done.
Uhuru promised in March to take personal charge
of the battle against corruption and said that any
official being investigated for graft must step aside.
Transport CS Michael Kamau has been charged over
abuse of office, while Lands CS Charity Ngilu has
been charged with obstructing an investigation.
A spokesman for Uhuru and the Transport ministry
did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Past Kenyan governments have made similar
commitments to fight corruption, only to have the
campaigns fizzle away.