BREAKING - Shs 9.6 BILLION BUDGET LOOTING

[job]

courtesy Mars group Kenya

Looting the Budget – Ksh 9.6 Billion Missing, and the fraudulent unjustifiable
approval of an amount of kshs 26.7Billion from the Supplementary estimates of
Recurrent Expenditure of the Government of Kenya for the year 2008/2009

This afternoon Gitobu Imanyara, MP, will request for a statement from the
Minister of Finance regarding glaring discrepancies in the documents presented
to Parliament for approval of the Supplementary Budget last week.

Mars Group Analysis of the Supplementary Budget and comparison of figures
within the Approved National Budget show systematic differences which caused
Parliament to vote additional funds to the Government when additional funds were
not necessary as Parliament had approved the expenditure in June last year.

There are over 200 such budget line items involved across 35 Ministries and the
total figure in dispute is just over Ksh 9.6 billion which was removed from the
Approved Estimates for unknown reasons.

The following budget line items have
discrepancies which require explanation:

- Personal Allowance paid as Part of Salary
- Training Expenses
- Hospitality Supplies and Services
- Domestic Travel and Subsistence and Other Transport Costs
- Office and General Supplies and Services
- Research, Feasibility Studies, Project Preparation and Design, Project
Supervision
- Purchase of Office Furniture
- Routine Maintenance
- Printing, Advertising and Information Supplies and Services
- Communication, Supplies and Services
- Utilities Supplies & Services
- Office and General Supplies and Services
- Fuel Oil and Lubricants

The effect is an unexplained loss of kshs 36,347,880,495 being the discrepancy
and actual loss of kshs 9.6 Billion plus the fraudulent unjustifiable request
and approval of an amount of kshs 26,670,690,984 on 200 fraud budget line items.
An amount larger than the entire Supplementary Budget.

The business of tax money is serious. The report made to Parliament through the
supplementary estimates is inaccurate. It is criminal to mislead Parliament that
the figures in the supplementary budget are the same as the approved estimates.

Who is responsible? Who at treasury authored the Supplementary Budget? Was the
Minister of Finance Uhuru Kenyatta aware that he tabled falsified documents for
the approval of Parliament? Parliament passed the budget in one afternoon
without scrutiny. Can Kenyans claim to have representation in Parliament?

It is our view that looting the Budget, our tax money by the Executive aided by
the National Assembly demonstrates that impunity in Kenya is now dictatorial and
at an all time high. The Kenyan Citizen will have to ultimately seek
accountability from Parliament and the Executive to end corruption and impunity,
if Kenya is to survive the problems it has so as to deal with Agenda 4 of the
National Accord.


Click here for 20 examples of the fraud and the full text of the request for a
statement from the deputy prime minister and minister of finance arising out of
the supplementary estimates approved by this house last week by Hon. Gitobu
Imanyara MP blog.marsgroupkenya.org/?p=756

[politicalmaniac]

he he
These thieves from mt kenya central province have "hard eyes" as my cousin is wont to say!
Shame on them!

[gulavi]

politicalmaniac, the word is Chisoni

If this is true, Which I really dont think I dought, Im not amazed or shocked.
This Uhuru Kijana, the first time I knew Him was when He was brought to Kaloleni before joining politics with baba, by one of our friends, for kaloleni elfare footbal fundraising, I never talked to Him, cause at this time I had my own issues and observations on the country passee, Wakenya were juuust starting to wake up, mid 80's. The Luhyas (My ochaa)walikuwa wamelala usingizi mzito at that time. The only folks I could discuss Real Siasa, were the Jalundes.
Anyway, uhuru at this time alikuwa kijana wa ndom, most of vjanas did it all the same, but yeye, was doing ndom as in bangi, njaga, big time, Im a witness. Si kwa ubaya that He should be judged on that, I only have my but with what I saw. Obambla came out clear akasema and it helps when you are genuine and want to help teenegers and the nation in many ways.
In Luhya we have a word, which maybe, maybe, helps, CHISONI. I dont see this in the Mafia, typicall of thieves and murderes I met in Jail. I still carry that word Chisoni with me up to today, Small Shit happens and it is neccessary, only a hangover will make me have self chisoni .

Ongalo Makokha

[job]

Courtesy Mars Group Kenya

FRAUD IS FRAUD! ACCOUNTABILITY WILL END IMPUNITY. PARLIAMENT AND THE EXECUTIVE
MUST NOW ACCOUNT TO THE TAX PAYER.


Where is the authority for Variation of what Parliament approved last year?

Where is the authority for the reallocations?

All variations are accompanied by explanatory notes but nowhere is there an
explanatory note for these 200 items for Ksh 9.6 billion.


The items laid down yesterday were 20 the ones Gitobu Imanyara laid today are
over 200 budget line items worth over Ksh 9.6 billion. Speaker Kenneth Marende
has referred this grave matter to both the Budget Committee and the Finance
Committee ordering them to inquire into the Minister of Finance’s Statement
and report back to the House on Tuesday May 12th 2009.

The Supplementary Appropriations Bill is based on contentious documents and
Parliament must satisfy itself that it is proceeding on the basis of a full and
frank disclosure of the facts by the Ministry of Finance.

The Finance Minister questioned Mars Group’s integrity. We stand by our
work. Unfortunately the Minister’s figures do not add up. On the basis of
his own documents as Minister for Finance, the question is - are Kenyans satisfied
that the documents of account being prepared by Minister for Finance officials
are true and further meet proper accounting standards?

We will know on Tuesday.


SUBMISSION TO THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES ENQUIRING INTO MATTERS ARISING
FROM A REQUEST FOR A MINISTERIAL STATEMENT BY HON. GITOBU IMANYARA RELATED TO
THE SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGET ESTIMATES 2008-9

This submission is on behalf of the Partnership for Change a non-violent
people’s movement dedicated to ending dictatorial impunity and re-establishing
democratic accountability in Kenya. To better engage the public with public
finances we study budgets at central and local levels. When the Supplementary
Estimates were first made public we formally communicated in writing to the
Budget Committee our concern about the short time given for scrutiny of the
Supplementary Budget and suggested that detailed scrutiny would identify any
inconsistencies or improper provisions ahead of Parliamentary approval.
Unfortunately the supplementary estimates were approved in one afternoon and no
member of parliament opposed them.

As we researched the Supplementary Estimates we asked the following questions:

Where is the authority for Variation of what Parliament approved last year?

Where is the authority for the reallocations?

Even though all variations are supposed to be accompanied by explanatory notes
why is it that nowhere is there an explanatory note for over 200 items for Ksh
9.6 billion?

Hon. Gitobu Imanyara raised this matter in Parliament on May 5th 2009. The
Finance Minister’s first reaction was to issue a 6 page statement in the
National Assembly, in which he strenuously defended the integrity of the
supplementary estimates as laid in the House, and further questioned the motives
of both Imanyara and other private citizens for airing concern. The Finance
Minister did not admit to any error before the House and Mr. Imanyara was
dissatisfied with the statement as were many Kenyans.

Wisely the Speaker of the National Assembly referred this matter of the Ksh 9.6
billion to your Joint Committee. When he first asked his question Mr. Imanyara
tabled 20 questionable budget line items and on Wednesday he tabled a list of
200 such items worth just over Ksh 9.6 billion. Speaker Kenneth Marende has
referred this grave matter to both the Budget Committee and the Finance
Committee ordering them to inquire into the Minister of Finance’s Statement
and report back to the House on Tuesday May 12th 2009 whether or not there are
inconsistencies between the estimates of June 2008 and those of April 2009. We
do not believe that computer error is at play here – it is an afterthought
having failed to convince Parliament 48 hours ago. We believe that if computer
error were to blame, the very first response of the Minister would have been to
check with his officers and thereby prevent the false statement being read in
Parliament. They would have found the error in a matter of seconds certainly a
shorter time than it took to draft and print the statement he issued on
Wednesday May 6th 2009. Because he did not conduct any check the Statement he
issued needlessly mislead Parliament and the country further. Worse it defamed
private patriotic persons who were not at fault.

But to the matter at hand. The Supplementary Appropriations Bill is based on
contentious documents and Parliament must satisfy itself that it is proceeding
on the basis of a full and frank disclosure of the facts by the Ministry of
Finance. We do not believe he is being frank. The recent explanation of last
night and this morning is a mere after thought after being confronted with
evidence of a systematic inflation of the total amounts approved by Parliament
by concealing Ksh 9.6 billion from Parliament while at the same time seeking a
further Ksh 26,7 billion on the same budget line items. This is a grave matter
and requires further investigation, and we urge you to consider it imperative to
the restoration of trust and faith in the management of the public finances of
the Government and by extension Republic of Kenya.

The Finance Minister questioned Mars Group’s integrity. The Budget campaign
is a campaign of the Partnership for Change. MARS Group was commissioned by the
P4C to conduct the research. The findings were studied and adopted by the
Partnership for Change and therefore as the P4C, we stand by our work and by the
reputation of Mars Group. Unfortunately the Minister’s figures do not add up.
On the basis of his own documents as Minister for Finance, the question is are
Kenyans satisfied that the documents of account being prepared by Minister for
Finance officials are true and further meet proper accounting standards?

There are over 200 such budget line items involved across 35 Ministries and the
total figure in dispute is just over Ksh 9.6 billion which was removed from the
Approved Estimates for unknown reasons. The following budget line items have
discrepancies which require explanation:
1. Personal Allowance paid as Part of Salary
2. Training Expenses
3. Hospitality Supplies and Services
4. Domestic Travel and Subsistence and Other Transport Costs
5. Office and General Supplies and Services
6. Research, Feasibility Studies, Project Preparation and Design, Project
Supervision
7. Purchase of Office Furniture
8. Routine Maintenance
9. Printing, Advertising and Information Supplies and Services
10. Communication, Supplies and Services
11. Utilities Supplies & Services
12. Office and General Supplies and Services
13. Fuel Oil and Lubricants

These are the same budget lines that generally have caused public concern as
the economic situation in Kenya deteriorated. Unfortunately most of the budget
line items which are now contentious relate to the allowances of our teachers,
police officers, administration police officers, prison officers, nurses and
other decent hard working civil servants. We would like to submit to you the
list of budget line items in the recurrent supplementary budget that require
further scrutiny even as we urge you to constitute a further probe into the
National budget including the estimates tabled in June 2008 and the
supplementary estimates of April 2009.
Apart from the Ksh 9.6 billion there are over Ksh 4.89 billion inserted into
the budget through the device of absolutely new budget line items which were not
approved by Parliament in June 2008. There are also odious debts such as Ken
Ren Fertiliser in the National Budget which has been condemned by the Controller
and Auditor General’s Report which the Minister of Finance tabled in
Parliament on Wednesday. All these matters require a longer probe than the
short one you have embarked on and we are sure the public would appreciate your
solidarity in demanding that Treasury and the Ministry of Finance is fully
accountable to Parliament.

Recommendations:

1. A Forensic Audit of the Budget for 2008-9 is necessary because, on the face
of it, there are material inconsistencies which perhaps indicate that public
funds could have been misapplied. The computer/ printing error explanation is
dubious and probably false - it does not address the doubt inherent in the
Speaker’s initial order establishing this enquiry. In fact computers and
printing machines do not make errors – no accounting software exists that
properly used could produce such error. Treasury must take responsibility for
this by subjecting itself to a forensic audit if it has nothing to hide.

2. The Forensic Audit should be conducted independently of Treasury. Perhaps
the audit could be commissioned by these two committees and an expert Panel of
the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya. Even the Treasury has
hired PWC to conduct special audits of security contracting. The precedent is
there, and the need is obvious, especially in view of the Treasury’s recent
U-Turns over the past 4 days.

3. We would request an apology from the Ministry of Finance in view of their
climb-down and the damaging statements made against us for merely pointing out
error in the budget in the public interest.

4. We would recommend that only urgent critical and priority spending should be
passed during the next phase of supplementary appropriation – the rest should
await the National Budget of June 2009.

5. The Fiscal Management Bill should be assented to and these committees should
request the President through the Speaker to so assent. This will reduce the
monopoly over budgeting currently held by Treasury, which has caused this costly
exercise.

6. Were this anywhere else in the world, we are sure that Treasury buildings
resignations would be in order.

Dated at Nairobi this 8th day of May 2009, and signed: for the Partnership for
Change

Jayne Mati Cyprian Nyamwamu Mwalimu Mati

[politicalmaniac]

jomo jnr thinks that he can perform some voodoo magic, wave a wand, just like that, con us, day in day out.
This tribalistic thug from kiambu wont get away with it

[politicalmaniac]

I spoke to soon it seems.
My round table friends are laughing mpaka they are tearing, eti this idiot from kiambu says a "typing error" is responsible for the errant figures amounting to 9Billion surcharge on tax payers so that they can steal.
Yaani how deep are the stomachs of these thugs from mt kenya central province, that they wanna devour any and everything in sight? Are their needs and wants an abyss of gluttony that cant and wont be satisfied?. Must they rape and pillage our treasury to smithereens?
Jameni when are we gonna be delivered from the mt kenya mafia? hawa elite thieves from central and their supporters and quislings?

[gulavi]

HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA

www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144013722&cid=4&ttl=Uhuru%20blames%20Sh9.2b%20glitch%20on%20computer

Im an IT Engineer here in Norway ,still trying to understand which software or machines are being used na Hi majambazi. I have supported and still support enterprise softwares from SAP etc.. for different entities,Well maybe someone should teach me on the new softwares and machines released recently that Jomo is using ambazo zina dangaya.

Enda Sema Hio Mambo kwa Umbwaa ile abandoned and illeterate not taught to heshimu mkubwa na inakula mavi. CHISONI, CHISONI, CHISONI.

Lol LOl. I knew huyu Kijana is still Smoking Bangi.


Onglo Makokha

[gulavi]

First of all, Gitobu is not a Computer Genious, Secondly Jomo should give the machine hadware and OS image, thirdly the calculating software and database access application used in this accounting/budgetry endevour. Mwisho but not least bring the engineer and wenye ku type to simulate what He refers to as "typing error" LOL

Ongalo Makokha

[adongo23456]

Bravo to our Mars Group comrades and for Imanyara for having the guts to take the matter to parliament. They busted these suckers. Ati computer or typing error. I mean Kenyan tax payers were going to be fleeced of Kshs 9.6 due to an error. Come'on. I mean we have always said here in Jukwaa that stealing needs a little intelligence.

What a horrible start for Uhuru. He was insulting the Mars folks as having no clue. Guess who has been proven as having no clue. The entire 2008/9 should be scrutinized for more "errors". Meanwhile Uhuru should resign immediately. He is a disgrace even to his fellow thieves.

[umoja]

The Standard: Parliament must deal with Uhuru firmly


There are many things that could be said of Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s casual concession the Sh9.2 billion puzzle in the Supplementary Estimates could have been due to a ‘typing’ or ‘computer’ error.

Were it not that it is too serious a matter, where Treasury would have comfortably withdrew from Consolidated Fund Sh31 billion instead of Sh26 billion Parliament approved, it would be laughable.

Because of the spirited manner the Deputy Prime Minister defended the figures when an MP first questioned their veracity in the House, and accused him of naivety and ignorance on budgetary issues, one could say he had done his homework.

By language and disposition, self-praise and the posturing of infallibility, and by attacking Speaker Kenneth Marende when he referred the matter to the joint Finance and Budgeting committees, Uhuru cast the image of a man who knew what he was saying.

He said Mr Gitobu Imanyara who raised the issue had been misled by "advisors of questionable professional credibility" to misunderstand simple accounting methods and the rationale for supplementary budget. Then on the day the two committees sat, he told journalists he had goofed, but blamed it on a ‘typing’ or ‘computer’ error.

True, he could be right, there could have been no intention to defraud taxpayers by loading the extra Sh9.2 billion on a lesser figure sought by Treasury and approved by Parliament.

But even to a layman, surely with the myriad technocrats working under him, and his own expertise, and believably working with a toothcomb, it would not have been impossible to single out the discrepancy.

Why? Because, the total amount was just Sh26 billion, and the disputed figure of Sh9.2 billion is 34 per cent of what he sought. What Uhuru conceded could first, point at a more serious problem at the Treasury, he is surrounded by incompetent and negligent technocrats.

Secondly, if the first were true, he is personally not up to the job he was given in January otherwise he would have dug out the inconsistencies before rushing to Parliament.

Anglo Leasing-type contracts

Thirdly, if he is competent to be entrusted with the task of guarding the national granary and did not see the discrepancy, then the question has to be asked about his frame of mind. Does he deploy his intellect, time and energy to his job or is he distracted? Fourthly, has Uhuru forgotten Treasury is as it were when the 18 Anglo Leasing-type contracts were signed and for which Kenya today is faced with risk of unnecessarily paying Sh56 billion – for contravening its contractual obligation? Would it require a rocket scientist to know one or two of the Treasury mandarins can sneak in vote items for payment of Anglo Leasing ‘ghosts’ in Uhuru’s Budget? It has happened before.

Fifthly, and which Uhuru would be grappling with in Parliament, was he up to some mischief? Computers, after all, only processes data fed by human.

Kenyans want to know if there was mischief by Treasury chiefs. The only way to clear Uhuru and restore the integrity of our budget, and confidence in Treasury, is for Parliament to order an independent audit of 2008-2009 Budget. The matter is grave and that is what public interest requires. It is unrealistic to envisage a situation where this can be done with Uhuru still in office.

[kangethe]

Not to sway the debate, but WHY do some Jukwaa members always paint a problem with a sweeping brush? One such example would be PM's thoughts "These thieves from mt kenya central province"??!!!!

Its utterly disturbing that we, young people continue to think in these terms. If my brother has robbed someone, does that make me and my one month old son robbers too? This trend to blame entire communities for the sins of individuals is disheartening to say the least......Why as a Kikuyu, do I have to be answerable for the sins of others? I am personally offended by these remarks and I call upon the Administrator to censure these tribalistic remarks that are bandied with contempt on jukwaa....

As for Uhuru, if a crime has been committed by himself or by others, may they be trampled by wildebeasts.......for I long ago lost trust in our so called "justice" system.

God help us. God help Kenya.

[dubois]

Kangethe,

You probably are new to Jukwaa but most of the regulars on this forum are unrepentant kikuyu/gema bashers. As long as corruption is not linked to a person of GEMA origin it is excused as a witchhunt, an oversight or to borrow from Jomo jr, a typo. The funny thing is, I bet there are very few individuals, GEMA or otherwise, who are willing to stick their necks out for corrupt leaders. But if the debate boils down to mt Kenya vs the rest or pnu vs odm most kenyans will rally with their tribesmen. This happened with Ruto, Raila and now it's happening with Jomo jr.

Dubois

[job]

First and foremost, it is important to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's because an important precedent has been set here - where any patriotic outsider, aided by an equally watchful MP, can bring to a halt theft of billions from our coffers during the budgeting process.

All credit is due to the patriotic whistleblowers Mars Group (whose very integrity Uhuru Kenyatta - of all people - tried to question) for unearthing this TEN BILLION SHILLING THEFT.

It is obvious this has been going on for a long time but at least thorough scrutiny will be invited in future. It can be inferred that -no wonder Kibaki's choices for the Finance Ministry have been particularly restricted to certain ethno-geographic limits.

Corruption goes hand in hand with tribalism. The clearly documented tragedy is that folks who loot tend to only trust persons perceived to be 'close' to them - to use another former Finance Minister's (John Michuki's) own words 'andu aitu'.

Credit should also go to the patriotic MP Hon. Gitobu Imanyara for bringing this mega theft in the house floor.

And thanks again to the wise Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende for referring this theft for scrutiny by the Joint House Committee (Budget and Finance).

Now, coming to the shameful excuse Mr Uhuru Muigai was trying to use for cover - ati computer typing error - it is quite laughable.

Mr. Imanyara tabled 20 questionable budget line items and on Wednesday he tabled a list of 200 such items worth over Ksh 9.6 billion. How these clearly concerted attempts at looting become computer typing errors is the flimsiest of all excuses one can invent. Computers don't make errors by inserting and inflating fictitious line items only upwards. Shame on you son of the land grabbing Jomo!!!

It is clear Uhuru Kenyatta was inserting fictitious items in the April 2009 estimates which were not there in the June 2008 estimates. There is simply NO computer error at play here – this is just a flimsy excuse by Uhuru having failed to convince anyone that there was no attempt to steal taxpayer money.

So Uhuru's crime numero uno is conspiring to defraud Kenyans.

His other transgression is actually attempting to mislead parliament. He clearly read a false statement trying to conceal the 10 billion shilling theft to the house seeking their approval. When the Mar Group and Gitobu first questioned the statement - Uhuru went blasting - questioning their integrity and motives.

How can a Minister for Finance bring to the house floor a Supplementary Appropriations Bill based on fictitious documents?

Ameshikwa! This Minister has now been confronted with evidence of a systematic inflation of the total amounts approved by Parliament.

This is plain robbery. This is serious. He must resign. A serious investigation and forensic audit of the entire budgetary process (line by line) is NOW required.

Who will believe anything else Uhuru says about the budget in future? Do you think most Kenyans will have any trust and faith in Uhuru's management of the public finances of Kenya?

The Finance Minister - whose figures don't add up and whose supporting documents are now proven to be false - needs to resign pronto. MPs need to censure and force this Minister to step aside for immediate investigations.

I further call all auditors and investigators of all future budget estimates of Kenya to pay attention to what Uhuru has revealed to use, to be his favourite line items for theft. These are:

1. Personal Allowances paid as Part of Salary to nurses, police, warders and such civil servants (notice the creativity of these thieves)
2. Training Expenses
3. Hospitality Supplies and Services
4. Domestic Travel and Subsistence and Other Transport Costs
5. Office and General Supplies and Services
6. Research, Feasibility Studies, Project Preparation and Design, Project Supervision
7. Purchase of Office Furniture
8. Routine Maintenance
9. Printing, Advertising and Information Supplies and Services
10. Communication, Supplies and Services
11. Utilities Supplies & Services
12. Office and General Supplies and Services
13. Fuel Oil and Lubricants

These (above) seem to be Uhuru's favourite targets for inflation. And he sure inflates to the tune of tens of billions as already proven.

You see why Kenya remains poor!!!!!! Such theft.

Resources that could be developing our country and boosting the economy are being pilfered into pockets of a few greedy but already wealthy thieves in power.

As Mars Group also documented, the 9.6 billion is not the only theft issue at hand. There are over Ksh 4.89 billion inserted into the budget through the device of absolutely new budget line items which were not approved by Parliament in June 2008.

Then there are also odious debts such as Ken Ren Fertiliser in the National Budget which has been condemned by the Controller and Auditor General’s Report which the Minister of Finance tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. All these matters require a more thorough investigation.

As you can all see, the budgeting process has become too adulterated, the public has lost trust and confidence in the Finance Minister and his junior staff at Treasury, and future budgets should not be left entirely at their hands. The other arm of government - Bunge - needs to be involved in the budgeting process for obvious reasons.

Lastly, as Mars recommended, only a forensic audit of the 2008-9 budget (independent of the Treasury, answerable to, and commissioned by parliament) will clear all these inconsistencies and even possibly unearth more scams.

Let parliament call for that forensic audit NOW!!!!

Then also, pressure must be put to the president to assent to the Fiscal Management Bill. It is clear Kibaki is trying to keep parliament far away from the budgeting proces and this has now been proven to be too costly to the nation. Its time to involve parliament in the process. This will reduce the monopoly over budgeting currently held by Treasury, which has caused this obvious looting. Where are ODM and other MPs and why are they not vocal about this? Kibaki must allow Bunge in the budgeting process now more than ever!

Let us wait and see whether Uhuru will do the first right thing in his career by resigning as Finance Minister. Ameshikwa! I will not hold by breath since I've previously seen Uhuru's decision making during critical times such as when he abandoned the office of Leader of Kenya's Official Opposition to join his tribesmate Kibaki in 2007 campaigns.

[kangethe]

May 10, 2009 16:52:37 GMT 3 job said:

All credit is due to the patriotic whistleblowers Mars Group (whose very integrity Uhuru Kenyatta - of all people - tried to question) for unearthing this TEN BILLION SHILLING THEFT.

Corruption goes hand in hand with tribalism. The clearly documented tragedy is that folks who loot tend to only trust persons perceived to be 'close' to them - to use another former Finance Minister's (John Michuki's) own words 'andu aitu'.

Ndugu Job, I find your article riveting and well thought out. You however, fall into the same dark hole I was complaining about. When you refer to "Patriotic whistleblowers" its my take you are referring to MARS group which happens to hire without discriminating on tribal grounds......I happen to know at least five fellas that work for this important org. One is a kikuyu, the other a luo and the third one a Meru....Why is this important?
The same whistleblowers including the MP from Meru one Gitobu happen to be from Mt. Kenya.

I am a little disturbed that on the same breath of lavishing praises to the hero whistleblowers, you throw in a tribalistic angle in referrence to "andu aitu". Which begs the question: are the same whistleblowers from Mt Kenya (ie MARS group researchers and Gitobu) guilty of the sins of "mundu wao"?

We are on a slippery slope in our history....a culture of hatred based purely on ones heritage that one has no control over. You seem to be an all rounded fella and for that I will attribute your remarks to a "computer" or "typing" error. Otherwise, if it were not the case i would surmise thus: Disgraceful to say the least.

Dubois, I could be new to Jukwaa, does that mean that I should take these unwarranted crititicism/name calling aimed at my one month old son (a kikuyu, by virtue of my heritage)

[gulavi]

kangethe
You ar really suffering from differentiating tribalism, rasism, hate of all forms from Political Critisism of wrongs in society. You are not alone, but kenya is in the helm of having confused its citizens to live in this type of shit.
During apartheid , if you talked about the botha/Apartheid mafia, you would be considered attacking the boers/whites as in tribe, well that was according to the apartheid mafia propaganda, which in essence meant keeping all the boers/whites under key and lock of the apartheid mafia to belive in superiority vis avi Blankes. What did this do to the woken boers ? Simple, fight for the truth, the rest i dont have to explain.
I am a Luhya and I suspect PM is a Luhya too, not a single time have I not read him shying from attacking stupid luhya politicians, it tells alot, you may call them the luhya mafia and they are.
I hope you grow up soon and remove those chains. Mind Liberation is sweet, trust me. You should read some threds here in Jukwaa explaining the meanings of tribalism=rasism etc.. here in Jukwaa, it will help you kujijuwa and Liberate the mind. If my father would have happened to be a thief or rapist, I would be the first one to call it what it is and to make you happy just mdogo, we have the Luhya fella that alilaza .... Its my best joke. The jalundes used to make Luhyas go balistics during foota with that case. I still laugh to it, not that it was ok, but the reaction of an entire tribe accepting one Loonies crime and not loking and accepting the truth that actually the individual commited the crime and that individual is not the entire tribe. I hope this helps mudogo.

Ongalo Makokha

[job]

Kangethe,

You missed my side point - not even the main point about this thread (on Uhuru's attempt to loot 9.6 billion shillings from us). Ongalo has expounded it in detail, I will just add.

By the way, your little kid doesn't have to share blame for the sins of "mundu wao" because he doesn't even have a clue who the heck they are and has never even attempted to defend them? I guess he's still too young to understand these intrugues (just my guess).

It's good to learn you are a father. I'm one too. My kids are born to parents of different tribes from Kenya so I don't know whether they would even try the heck big job of trying to defend all crooked looters in Nyanza and Eastern provinces alike in the vein of "ng'atwa" or "wakwitu".

The link between corruption and tribalism has long been researched and documented. Does it surprise you that when a corrupt boss (with clear intentions to steal from his job) is hiring an accountant - they would prefer to employ someone with close tribal bonds to him/herself?

This is not a hypotheses anymore, it's been researched and tested and proven to be true. Tribalism feeds corruption and vice versa.

So when you see that Kibaki has only appointed folks from Mt. Kenya as Finance Ministers, try to interogate your mind a bit. Does it fit into the data informing the researched observation that tribalism goes hand in hand with corruption?

Let's therefore not start an argument that corruption and tribalism don't go hand in hand and let's also not pretend that talking about it invites an accusation of being 'disgraceful'. I will talk about this any day, any time irrespective of any false accusations.

You are right about Mati and his folks at Mars Group and even Gitobu Imanyara. They are straightout good patriots from Mt. Kenya and trust me there's very many such good peoples from around the slopes, take it from me. They appreciate nationalism in as much as they are proud of their tribal heritage. Above all, many are progressive and pragmatic.

Another one of them is called John Githongo. He too, like Mati et al., thrive on uncensored truth. Read Githongo's book "It’s Our Turn to Eat" to understand the important link between tribalism and corruption and how the twin sins have impoverished a people who have been lied to and made to believe that once their ethnic group attains power, manna from heaven will descend on all members of their group - Of course using well calculated phrases like none other than 'andu aitu'.

Thanks to Githongo's revealing book, the link between Kenya’s poverty, tribalism and grand corruption has never been exposed in such searing detail before.

My use of the phrase 'andu aitu' is borrowed from John Michuki. He is the one who told Mt. Kenya folks that the fight for a new constitution was just a ploy to remoce Moi from power, and that we now don't need a new constitution since Kibaki is 'andu aitu'.

According to Githongo, Kiraitu Murungi also told him that Anglo-Leasing 'is us'. Now, these are some pretty bad folks from Mt. Kenya - take it again from me.

Uhuru is another one of them bad boys, trying to lie to us that 9.6 billion shillings he inflated in the budget was in fact a computer error. Of course after first denying and throwing some heavy brickbats at good 'ol Mati. When Kiraitu, Michuki and Uhuru speak we read a lot of stuff like the 'andu aitu's, our turn to eat and such nasty stuff.

For instance, have you wondered what the inferrence 'us' means in Kiraitu's statement "Anglo-Leasing is us"? Or what Michuki's phrase 'andu aitu' is meant to signify.

I hope you can now get what I mean by using that phrase. I will use it as frequently as you wish me to expound.

Now let's please go back to Uhuru Kenyatta and his attempt to steal 9.6 billion from Kenyans.

Do you think he should resign like his fellow Mt. Kenya native Mwalimu Mati suggests (to allow for forensic audit of the budget)?

I've just watched on NTV how Uhuru's hireling MPs are defending him and blaming technocratic officials at Treasury. Well the PS is one Mr. Joseph Kinyua, and the Director of Budgets is one Mr. DJ Ngugi. Did they also coincidentally 'just miss' the computer error 200 plus times? Or who are these saboteurs?

This is why the nation can't move an inch - we are stuck with mediocrity and theft.

[kelly]

May 11, 2009 1:07:16 GMT 3 job said:

...It's good to learn you are a father. I'm one too. My kids are born to parents of different tribes from Kenya so I don't know whether they would even try the heck big job of trying to defend all crooked looters in Nyanza and Eastern provinces alike in the vein of "ng'atwa" or "wakwitu".

Some background of you I did not know about! Congrats and wish you well. Very few men can even accomodate one wife.

May 11, 2009 1:07:16 GMT 3 job said:

...My use of the phrase 'andu aitu' is borrowed from John Michuki. He is the one who told Mt. Kenya folks that the fight for a new constitution was just a ploy to remoce Moi from power, and that we now don't need a new constitution since Kibaki is 'andu aitu'.

According to Githongo, Kiraitu Murungi also told him that Anglo-Leasing 'is us'. Now, these are some pretty bad folks from Mt. Kenya - take it again from me. .

To add on to the above, is Jimmy employed by the government to go on and reassure Uhuru that his dad has his back? Is this not a case of ganging to defend one of their own the way the immediate former finance mionister rushed to kipirirpiri to hold rallies with his people saying he will resign over his dead body? What does this tell other Kenyans from other communities? And then guys have the guts to come here and tell us that their community is being lumped together.

[kamalet]

This is the problem of the hypocrisy that pervades Jukwaa!

When a parliamentary committee came up with the allegations that the PM's son as well as his aides were involved in possible corruption over maize, these same anti-corruption zealots in Jukwaa were quick top defend the PM with all sorts of political angles being added as to why these allegations were made.

Some arithmetic errors are noted in the supplementary estimates and now it is fine to reduce the whole matter to "andu aitu" thieves and charlatans!! Not even the parliamentary committees tasked to investigate if indeed there was theft have reported back to the house, but as long as some tribes are involved, it is definitely theft.

[mzee]

Im afraid that Uhuru who wants to be president will end up like this man....


Jomo Kenyatta who stole land from his kikuyu brethren without blinking. Looted the government coffers without a second thought. Now his son is at it.

Having been caught red handed Uhuru now wants to shift blame to junior civil servants. Let this gut know we are watching him.

Do we really want a thieving president?

[mzee]

But at the Treasury, some employees expressed fear that powerful forces in the ministry might sacrifice them as scapegoats over the Sh9.2 billion scandal. A financial analyst at Treasury, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, said detectives should expand their investigation beyond junior employees to cover the entire Micro-Economic Working Group of permanent secretaries and directors of planning at Treasury, Finance and Planning as well as the Office of the President, besides the Directorate of Planning involved in the budget.....

The official argued that the Sh9.2 billion said to be unaccounted for during requisition for the Supplementary Budget cannot be blamed on a "computing error" when about five PSs, directors and chief planning officers of several ministries were involved in processing the information for three monthsmaking process.......

"It is not easy for a computer error to occur on 120 items for a value that is so glaring," the official said of the reported items on which personal and other allowances were allegedly inflated......


www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144013873&cid=4&ttl=Sh9.2b:%20Detectives%20target%20junior%20staff%20Who%20will%20take%20the%20blame?

[deyiengs]

May 11, 2009 8:29:02 GMT 3 kamalet said:

This is the problem of the hypocrisy that pervades Jukwaa!


Some arithmetic errors are noted in the supplementary estimates

;D ;D ;D

Never fails to amaze me!

[gulavi]

kamale writes "PM's son as well as his aides were involved in possible corruption over maize"

So the PM is not accused of any corruption, if undertand this ok. Well fine kama its the son and bla bla why do we have anti corrupion ... Tupa the thieves to jail. Nobody should defend a thief whichever tribe\family they come from, but the way I saw the way this thing approached, first throw roumers in the air without giving raia any evidence or leads. Gitobu gave Raia the real thing hard core evidence mpaka jomo .. wacha tu.

Ongalo Makokha

[adongo23456]

Folks

Some people are busy trying to turn a simple case of theft that has been busted into a discussion about tribes and other related nonsense. Kamale's statement is particularly pathetic. Lets avoid those diversions and deal with the real issues at stake.

The minister of finance has been busted trying rob Kenyans of Kshs 9.6 billion with fake figures. What we know is that if Mars Group did not expose the racket, Uhuru would have gotten his money from the Treasury and they would have kept their take which amounted to more than one third of the Supplementary Budget!

The more Uhuru tries to explain himself the more ridiculous he looks. At first he tried to pour scorn on the Mars folks. That didn't work. Then it was an error. That couldn't make sense because even in Uhuru's own admission there were 120 line items that were hiked. You can't just make the same mistake hundreds of times. That is not an error. That is a plan.

Then Uhuru started to claim it was sabotage from within the Treasury by people who want to hurt him politically. I don't know how many politicians work at the Treasury. So what is it Mr. Uhuru? Is it an error or an act of sabotage. The two cannot be true at the same time.

Then the Uhuru squad has now been assured by Kibaki's son that the president supports him and he shouldn't worry (of course the OP is deep into this mess). I always tell people when they are this kind of problems to shut up. The more they talk they sillier they become.

One thing is certain about this heist. It is the apparent simplicity of this kind of theft that was supposed to make it work. They did not budget for suspiciously looking big items. They simply took the items Kenyans often pay for and hiked the numbers. That was a work of genius. They were just about to hit home with the jackpot when some pesky characters cornered them.

Now the entire budget system in Kenya is in big trouble. Nobody can trust anything in any budget Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta will ever present to Kenyans. The question this thing raises is simple. Should Uhuru continue to be the minister of finance? The answer is a big NO. This is why.

One is that even assuming this was some kind of errors involving 200 items (according Mars Group) it raises the issue of competence of the minister of finance. If this is just a bunch of errors about to cost Kenyans one full third of a whole budget then the minister is grossly incompetent. This would be criminal negligence and the minister should actually do the honourable thing and quit. But we know in Kenya there is more honour among bank robbers than our cabinet ministers.

One assumes that the minister at least reads the budget before he presents it to parliament. These things take months to prepare. There are comparative figures etc. At any rate the budget is one third fake. One would expect that at least the minister and other senior officials would notice something that glaring and ask for some kind of review. So either Uhuru and his budget people are complete idiots who have no clue about the Kenyan budgets or they knew perfectly what they were doing. Either way Uhuru must go.

Secondly we have the issue of credibility. The Kenyan budget is undergoing a lot of stress. Basically the country is broke. The revenues have plummeted, it is likely to get worse, we have hunger problems we are going to have some expensive referendum to run etc. The Kenyan government is going to need a lot of donor money to function. I don't know any donors looking at this mess and thinking oh yeah, this looks great.

Uhuru can politicize the matter all he wants but the simple fact is that his credibility as the Kenyan minister of finance is down to zero. At any rate Uhuru has been mediocre minister all his political life. Moi dragged him and gave him the ministry of local government. Kibaki did the same and the thing Kenyans remember most about his tenure there is his bogus nominations and inflating the numbers by hundreds, something which Mudavadi had to correct later. May be they should have found some useless ministry to hide him. Then they put in this high profile ministry and now he gives us this fiasco as his very first major act in that office.

I think so far the M.Ps have been very sensible. They have not turned the matter into an agenda for funeral politics. Only the PNU gangs of kina Mbugua are roaming the villages assuring the minister of support. Once this matter comes back to parliament we expect the M.Ps to get very serious. The whole supplementary budget should be combed with a tooth pick. Uhuru's credibility as finance minister must be discussed.

Also I think this is a perfect reason why the parliamentary budget office which I believe was already passed into law and which Kibaki has not signed yet, should be signed immediately. Now we see why the president has been reluctant to sign the bill into law.

Lat I think the PM has to get into the matter. This Wednesday when he goes to answer questions Kenyans would want to know from the minister what the heck is going on. How can we have 34% of a whole budget with fake figures? Did these figures originate from the ministries involved or were they just cooked up the Treasury? What safeguards do Kenyans have about this kind of thing happening again? Has this thing been going on before?

There are a lot of questions about Mr. Kenyatta's bogus budget. Kenyans need answers.

adongo

[kamalet]

Adongo,

I think you need to drive the tribal nonesense those that started it. Why not admonish those who went for the gikuyu as well if you really want to appear objective in your argument. I only drew the attention of the tribal bigots that they should have reacted differently when the name of Raila's son was mentioned than they did.

That is how pathetic Jukwaa is at times, and unfortunately you do not even help the argument! I at the moment care little about what Uhuru is bleating about and will wait for the report in parliament to condemn or support Uhuru. Neither can I take seriously the mumblings of Mwalimu Mati until his argument is also checked.

However, I cannot help notice how quickly people are going for Uhuru including dragging his late father into the fumbling of the son! Uhuru was only a 17 year old when his father died and was still in school, so give him a break! The fact that he still has political attraction in Kenya is something Kenyans will explain to themselves, and am sure they do not need Jukwaa to help them.

If the fumbling of the figures was a genuine mistake and he acknowledges the same as well as apologise, I am happy to let bygones be. However if he comes and claims sabotage as is being suggested, then if he cannot get the culprits charged and convicted in a court of law for making him mislead the house, then he would be best suited to go home and count milk.

[umoja]

I will add a new angle to this discussion - The world or more specifically global financial markets and investors do not seem to care about who is in charge of monetary and economic policies in Kenya.

Unless I am wrong, there was no discernable drop at the NSE following revelations of possible tampering with the Kenya 2008/2009 budget process. In some countries, the negative impact would have been immediate with devastating results !

If you want to know how the actions of a finance minister is closely watched just read pre election coverage on former South Africa finance minister Trevor Manuel. The stability of the Rand has been pegged on Mr. Manuel for sometime.

Even before Zuma became president, investors were second guessing his handling of finance ministry. Zuma seem to have calmed the markets by appointing a popular former tax boss, Pravin Gordhan as finance minister while placing Manuel in a new portfolio in charge of national planning .

To reinforce the importance of finance stewards and how their actions are closely watched, just look at the brief history Timothy Geithner of the Obama administration. For that matter most finance ministers.

I can not recall when actions of present or former Kenya finance minister ceased to matter to investors. May be world markets and investors have paid more attention to central bank governors in Kenya.

Either way, the actions of a finance minister is always scrutinized closely inside and outside a country’s borders. It is a serious position requiring mature and seasoned stewardship irrespective of one’s tribe in Kenya.

Umoja.