WHY IS FIN-SEC. DR. RICHARD ROTICH MISSING IN ACTION?

[nok]

How much value does a face have !

www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/2270984/-/5up909z/-/index.html

[jakaswanga]

TYPING ERRORS REVISITED AS EXPLANATIONS FOR AUDIT QUERRIES

As the minister of finance Rotich wiped the floor with the auditor general, I remembered where he was when we had this!

www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000038898/treasury-missed-errors-in-revenue-sharing-bill?pageNo=2

11/5/2009 Uhuru quizzed over Sh9.2b ‘typing error’

Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday appeared before a joint House committee to explain a Sh9.2 billion error i
–--------
The deputy PM has come under pressure following the revelation in the House by Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara that the Supplementary Budget he presented and was passed by MPs had an extra Sh9.2 billion.
Emerging reports have suggested that some senior officers at Treasury may have altered the column that represented figures of last year’s Budget even before the supplementary estimates were taken to the printer.
Mr Kenyatta has since termed the Sh9.2 billion error affecting 200 line items as an oversight arising from a typing error. He pleaded innocence over the matter in Parliament last week and at the weekend claimed he was being sabotaged.
The discrepancies touched mainly on the line items tagged ‘personal allowance’ with the Ministry of Education being the most affected.
Mr Kenyatta’s allies have claimed that he was being sabotaged by a clique of Treasury mandarins and his political rivals.
In Naivasha, some members of the Budget committee asked Mr Kenyatta to resign over the error

www.nation.co.ke/news/-/1056/597228/-/view/printVersion/-/pug714/-/index.html

And much more recently, more audit problems.

Ksh. 8.2 or 2.8 billion, that is the loan Mutea Iringo and Francis Kimemia made away with. Finsec Rotich is not yet out on his accounting math on that one! otherwise he could have helped out General Namwamba! We wait, though given his high speed in responding to auditorial inaccuracies elsewhere, we could have to adopt the mocking chirp of Chineke the bird. 'here i am patiently waiting for light at the end of this our eternal darkness of hell!'

jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9234/mutea-iringo-francis-kimemia-unaccounted

[jakaswanga]

INTRODUCTION TO A CRISIS OF MEANING: AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING.

I want to keep the following in mind before I proceed with this paper. Whenever every Tom Dick and Harry from the IMF or some other international Busy Body has come to town to read Henry Rotich the lectures on his worrisome if not mediocre performance with the Kenyan shilling (and debt portfolio), our hero has kept his head low like a shy tortoise in the day. His robust coming out to disparage the office of the auditor general is therefore a 'stand out', ie. a statistical deviation (from normal)

That kind of thing requires an in-depth.

2. Just how dangerous President Obama of the USA is in the geopolitical game of manipulation, can be seen in some blatant distortions he excelled at without batting an eyelid. Obama toasted and heaped praise on Mwai Kibaki for cutting the 'distance' to South Korea in half in his 10 years as president. –--some bad mouths say Barrack was returning a family favour. Obako was nice to Obama senior in them days of old.

But here is the deeper catch: a professor of law and reader in economics from Harvard like Obama can not miss his subtexts. Like this one. –--Only as a half-senile, half-cripple in a wheelchair, did Mwai Kibaki, like Wolfgang Schauble of Germany, make a noteworthy contribution to the national economy. Yet for decades on end, manning the fulcrum points of the economy, all the way to the key docket of finance and the treasury, Emilio Mwai Kibaki had been a prime mover of events. Take stock then, of the opportunity cost, bethink thee for a moment, if, RIGHT FROM THE START AS A YOUNG BRILLIANT ECONOMIST FROM MAKERERE, Mwai Kibaki had contributed his true fill to the nation. All those wasted decades!



Why did professor Obama ignore to lecture this significant lesson, as he toasted his fellow don and family friend Emilio?

Because he is POTUS, and he is visiting Vassals. You do not treat vassals as equals. If they were equals they would be geopolitical power rivals. Obama intends we stay the same course, of underperformance and semi-colonial dependence, for that is to the best imperial interests of his nation as his strategists see it. ##this to explain the USA's 163% increase to fund the security organs of Kenya, at a time when they are the most corrupt dockets according to the CIC Muigai himself##

Keeping these in mind, I now want to comment on the statistical deviation, or out of character manifestation by Rotich which I hinted at, above. And the discipline of accounting/audits.

Here is an interesting footwork. It is intended as a rear-window flashback, or warm-up homework for the national hero at finance, the cabinet secretary Henry Rotich, who now shows some pertinent signs of moral fatigue.

Why?
Because I remember reading a very interesting detail offered by the parents of Henry when he was appointed minister of finance. Henry Rotich by some sources, is just about the best thing to have happened to the Kerio valley since the invention of goat cheese.

You should see the expression in her eyes as she adulates her son. It is all joy and happiness as she talks of his achievements. Mrs Rotich, 70, is grateful to God, saying her son’s nomination was an honour to all the people of Elgeyo Marakwet

But that is of mothers and sons you say!?

Okay, we visit dads who, they say, are given less to bouts of romanticism. (Historically fathers kill sons for power, and vice versa.)

Rotich was instrumental in formulating macroeconomic policies that ensured an affordable and sustainable path in public spending.

His father, Rotich Kimatui attributes his son’s success to sustained discipline and respect from an early age. He says of his son, “He was a student to reckon with, always committed to his books and home chores.” The Senior Rotich says his son had a passion for economics and accounting as he grew up, making him best suited for the challenging position where he will take care of the nation’s coffers.

“Henry was not the type of students who send letters home requesting for extra money for his upkeep while in school,” the old man recalls. He says Rotich could account for every single cent given to him and make savings as well.

His father proudly said, during his school days and with the meagre family budget, Rotich always accounted for the money to the last ndururu (hela or 5 cents).

That is the detail I wanted. Long before the faculty of economics at Nairobi University, long before the halls of Kennedy School Harvard, Henry Rotich was a sky-high accoutant, in principle.

When a man like me imports that content, I know I have a story.
Why?
One name: Amilcar Cabral.

1. We can now plot the evolution from the dominant HISTORICAL PERSONALITY around here. We can now chart the path of ALIENATION. We can now witness DEPERSONALISATION as a function of integration into a predatory, parasitic economic system, under the alibi of super education. It is also called ADAPTATION to an environment ... (the higher you are educated and rise in the corrupt social hierarchy, the more simple things like theft, or definitions thereof become insurmountable mental challenges.)

2. For comparison and reference, there are a lot of biographies of public figures around Africa who 'adapted', but in their younger days they were more honest than God in addition to cleverer than all. –-ex Malawi head Kamuzu Banda comes to mind. How about the now forgotten Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines?

But for those who stayed steadfast in their historical personality, we have the old mothers, yes, mothers like in the sad story of Immaculate, mother of the Engineer Kamau, the suspended cab-sec at the transport docket. Behold, this old African lady of honour collapsed and died in shock, at the news that her great son was nothing but a common thief, fugitive from the law.

–-How does one reconcile this assured anti-theft PURITANISM of the old and illiterate Africa, with the behavioural ADAPTATION of her brilliant and ivy-league super-educated sons, commissioned to take care of public business, and making a rot of it?

I personally smell a rat. A dead rat. Technically speaking that should read: the problematic enters a 'tautology'.

The moral parameters of these issues, the irreconcilabilities that underlie these antagonisms in personality, are therefore such that they are practically issues of life and death. Indicators of social collapse. (for the moment let us, like a Greek Chorus in a classical tragedy, refer to it as PROGRESS!)

THE PROFESSIONAL CRISIS

So to speak, the Andrea Chilulu's (best of the best educated) from both sides of the public office divide, the executive and the watchdog, in this case represented by Henry Rotich and Eduard Ouko, can not tell the nation the truth about public money, and its use. They are telling us FINANCIAL AUDITS are a matter of opinion. That Financial reports are mystic affairs, and no conclusive papers can be presented. Audits are an endeavour which can neither reveal theft, nor reveal unclear usage!

It is all down to your opinion. says the experts!

Sawa.

Some of us are blessed with common sense. We can resist Ivy league nonsense. We know theft. Will call it theft, get shocked at it. And, this is important in men as opposed to women, instead of collapsing dead in shock like old honest mothers, we would rather export the rage, so that it becomes the guilty thieves who perish, in guillotine chops!

This looks a better deal!

Obviously corruption in Kenya is a pathology. The minds of these caretakers have caught a disease, and are dysfunctional. Likely only a radical surgery will infest the nation once more with an epidemic of common sense.

#piece originally written for the culture and cabral thread.

jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9302/nyanza-cultural-rapids-goebbels-cabral

Continued.

[jakaswanga]

INTRODUCTION TO A CRISIS OF MEANING: AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING.

I want to keep the following in mind before I proceed with this paper. Whenever every Tom Dick and Harry from the IMF or some other international Busy Body has come to town to read Henry Rotich the lectures on his worrisome if not mediocre performance with the Kenyan shilling (and debt portfolio), our hero has kept his head low like a shy tortoise in the day. His robust coming out to disparage the office of the auditor general is therefore a 'stand out', ie. a statistical deviation (from normal)

That kind of thing requires an in-depth.

Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/8472/why-richard-rotich-missing-action?page=2#ixzz3iIiveaaB

We do keep in mind the healthy distrust of Jukwaa veteran Kamalet concerning the reports in our dailies. True, Kamalet has not gone as far as President Kenyatta in dismissing the papers as a little less than butchery meat-wraps, still his cautionary tone need must be accommodated.

I had observed earlier on, and opted, that the vicious tackle at the legs of the Auditor General, Sir Ed Ouko, executed by His Lordship the cabsec for finance Rich Rotich, was out of synch with the character of the Jubilee apparatchik. So I thought of this African saying which suggests frogs do not just jump about in broaddaylight for fun! Fear is usually a good motive why they do.

In any case now, as more corruption skeletons come tumbling out of the woodwork, I bet Rotich will be back to his characteristic tortoise shell, minimised, reasoning silence is golden and hibernating eyes-wide-shut.

Remember too ---with a hint at Fanonian alienation and Cabralian displacement from historical personality, we are, deep in the mental hinterland, plotting his evolution curve, from, quoting his father, the god's own infallible bookkeeper, to, once he reached the pinnacle of power, just another of those zero-sum characters so wonderfully described in great post-colonial fiction: potential high fliers, double broken wings. (No longer at ease The interpreters, The beautiful ones are not yet born!) This discrepancy (between ability and actual performance) is the bottomless canyon where the hopes of whole generations of young Africans sunk. This discrepancy is why every tongue in the world ever wags at Africa, pointing at what the Asian Tigers did in the meanwhile.

The latest reminder was one Barrack Obama. He was holding court at Kasarani, famous in Luoland for Men in Black abominations! (Obama exorcised Raila's sacrillege of yonder, but that is a Luo tale for elsewhere!)

There is a dictum out there which goes, first history repeats itself as a tragedy, second time around as farce. –-I hope I will get to this point in time with respect to Richard Rotich, our new econometrist (genius) at Finance. (George Saitoti was another one, so too Mwai Kibaki and his then sidekick Obama snr.)

Now, tongue in cheek if you wish:

Don Mwai Kibaki was a young genius. He spent it first facilitating Jomo Kenyatta's wanton plunder, then Arap Moi's pathological mediocrity. Only later, when it was nearly too little too late, did Emilio see chance to make a bit of amends; by then he was already a half-senile wheelchair-ridden sitting duck, but still, Yesu in Ajabu, his was a decade of enlightenment in the light of Arap Moi's two+ decades of total darkness.

Now, imagine a young genial Kibaki operating at his peak for two decades!

I think he would kick Mahathir's ass (Malaysia), and go to toe with the late Lee K. Yuan (Singapore), and Kenya would have shown Taiwan dust, and just about edged South Korea!

NB: There are people who lived to tell why Tom Joseph Mboya personally drove all the way to Makerere to headhunt Mwai Kibaki. I was told Mboya said: 'Kibakini, gini wiye hono. Koyie, mi hawi be odhi maber onyalore oriembo keyo kar tekre, to an rateng' Jarusinga abende an kanyo, mano to Kenya wasiayore oko, kaka yie monindo e tanga moyieng'. Ok lawre jukre!'

Aaah, Asian tigers!
That is the way I calculate the national opportunity costs, and shed tears internally in pining woe, as I read of the drunken exploits of young Kibaki and young Obama –-Mr. Toads according to the Notorious Philip Ochieng'!

FastForward: Now we have the two genial boys Rotich and Njoroge (MoF $ CBK). A teetotaller and an Opus Dei. The question asks itself: are they but latest versions (prototypes of Mr Toads) which, behold, is the history repeating itself as a tragedy?

That is a fate I do not want for our new genius on the block, Rich Rotich. But the fwaka is worrying me stiff!

We will read between the lines. But try not to be too harsh.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Sh10 billion security tender wars threaten police modernisation
…..
Terror attacks in the country have driven up the security budget with the Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich allocating the Interior ministry, under which the police service falls, Sh102.5 billion in the 2015/2016 budget, up from Sh92.9 billion in 2014/2015.
Between Sh10 billion and Sh15 billion was set aside for modernising the police and the military respectively.
…..
www.nation.co.ke/news/Battle-for-Sh10bn-security-tenders/-/1056/2825430/-/dncn39z/-/index.html

Right on cue after a massive build-up in budget, with Obama adding even more to the security kitty, comes the bill to secretise the expenditures in these department!

I say even the greatest of fools can read what a spear harshly thrown at his heart is meant to do.
Silence is golden.

1. Mutea Iringo and Francis Kimemia and the Ben Somebody who could not be sacked! I never heard the finsec on the 'alleged' stolen billions. –-I say 'alleged' coz I promised not to be too harsh.
2. Add this to the amount the former Gichangi-now-Waweru outfit mislocated, then the issue may not be lack of cash! ('hapo kwa security ndipo wanaunda pesa!' –-prezzo himself!)

So meseems one adds them security boys money coz one is afraid. Not coz they need it to do the job. They could sarcastically bark at one: 'Hii pesa si ya mama yako. Zote ni zetu za sekiuriti). And the bidding is done. The facilitation, like young Kibaki with Kenyatta.

Baah! history cyclic!

Continued.

[jakaswanga]

Continued. THE TENDER WARS BEHIND THE SECRECY IN THE SECURITY BILLS!

Now let us read the 8-4-4=0 report between the lines.

www.nation.co.ke/news/Battle-for-Sh10bn-security-tenders/-/1056/2825430/-/dncn39z/-/index.html

Conversations with top-level officials – who cannot be quoted due to the sensitivity of the matter – paint a picture of an intensive battle for control of the tenders and the culprits of what may be a rip-off in the making lie on either side, depending on who you listen to.
Those who support single sourcing, mainly officials at the ministry, say they opted to go directly to manufacturers to do away with brokers who were used to “making a killing from security contracts at the expense of the taxpayer”.

But critics say the single sourcing purchases are a cover for the procurement of models that are even more expensive, creating multi-million-dollar sweeteners and kickbacks in the name of a clean-up.
“The brokers who were used to business-as-usual are miffed because they can no longer have their way. There are senior people in this government who have been kept out of the deals because of their penchant for kickbacks. But there are instructions from above that we must go directly to manufacturers,” said an official.
NOT AWARE

We can ask naively: Are you, in the least, aware of these price-inflating schemes, Rotich? Or, as we will presently see from Monicah Jumah –--(who has since learnt her lesson after her career-threatening altercation with the Mpigs)--- you share the opinion everything is kosher, and there is nothing really to worry nor whine about!?

Yet other Kenyans, knowing we have graduated from nchi ya kitu kidogo to whole-chicken munchers at a meal, are rising to the roles of Doubting Tomas. Like this John Githong'o.

The publication of an official audit found just one percent of Kenya government spending and a quarter of the entire $16 billion (15 billion euro) budget was properly accounted for.
"This is the most rapacious administration that we have ever had," said Mr Githongo.
–----------
CAPTURED BY CORRUPT ELITES

In 2002, Mr Githongo was appointed 'anti-corruption czar' by then president Mwai Kibaki, but three years later he fled for his life after uncovering a $770m (700 million euro) security procurement scam known as Anglo Leasing.

Mr Githongo's whistle-blower story became the basis of Michela Wrong's 2009 book It's Our Turn to Eat, a year after Githongo had returned home.
The earlier government of Daniel arap Moi, who ruled for 24 years until 2002, was defined by the $1 billion (900 million euro) gold subsidy fiddle known as Goldenberg.

More recently, Parliament has questioned the tendering behind the new $13.5 billion (12.4 billion euro) Mombasa-Nairobi railway line, a huge infrastructure project seen as essential to Kenya's economic growth
–-------------
"That only 1.2 per cent of government expenditure can be properly accounted for is a stinging indictment of the management of public resources. The entire system is either in a state of failure or has been captured by corrupt elites," he said.
On Thursday, Cabinet Secretary for Finance Henry Rotich shrugged off the 361-page auditor's report in a three-page statement that said his ministry "has since established that there were no resources lost". As with the government accounts, scant supporting evidence was provided.

Rotich shrugged off the report. Just like his predecessors Saitoti and Mudavadi did the Anglo-Leasing and Goldenberg. ---Baah, cyclic history!

Captured by corruption elites. The pride of the Kerio Valley, the brightest of our land who went all the way to the best of the whiteman school where the world-ruling elite is trained, has been turned into a mutant –-like the rest before him. --Baah!

He shrugs off with ease an auditor general's report detailing losses, raising questions in a country which …

...is slipping down Transparency International's annual corruption index and is now 145th out of 174 nations, down from 136 in 2013. With media and civil society also under pressure the 50-year-old corruption fighter warned of "the speed with which democratic space is shrinking".

It is obvious the brilliant mind from Rift has been leaking sense and sesibilities and 'ili piga knock' and will need heavy retooling to appropriate reality correctly. He has been turned, he will need to be debriefed and re-wired back to pro-Wanjiku default. He is too smart to be surrendered in toto, too needed for his scalp and brains to let be claimed by the forces against the future. Wanjiku could use him some.

But plead with him to do public good, nobody will. He will do it or be written off. History pleads with nobody, even the son of God.

PAC has already summoned Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and Permanent Secretary Monica Juma over the purchase of a second-hand police helicopter for Sh900 million after the initial tender was cancelled.
In his budget speech, Mr Rotich said the country needed to invest more to protect citizens.
The aircraft alone are expected to cost the government an estimated Sh2.7 billion.

And the police themselves say the 2nd hand chopper costed more than a new one would, with manufacturer's guarantee for service for years!
Small change, but books will balance or not. And at a certain level of intellect and training, they don't, you are a racketeer.

Sources told the Sunday Nation that on the issue of the armoured personnel carriers, the police identified two models — Spartan and Cobra — manufactured in Dubai.
The source said that a team led by a senior police officer visited the manufacturers for inspection of the models in Dubai last year on the instructions of former Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo.
A recommendation was made to the ministry with hopes that procurement would begin but police were shocked when a different Chinese-built model was shipped into the country.

Monicah Juma insists everthing went according to protocol. Obviously 'protocol' now has to be abbreviated! –-it is a word/concept whose meaning/interpretation now depends .. on ...

But the battle to control tenders for the purchases has caused divisions within the security establishment amid claims of rent-seeking.
Sources familiar with the process said the Interior ministry cancelled tenders that had been advertised before and opted for single sourcing – ignoring the recommendations of the police technical committee – in a move that threatens to cause a fallout between senior officials in the Jubilee Government.
The Sunday Nation has learnt that the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is already investigating how the billions of shillings allocated for the modernisation are being spent.

SPECIAL AUDIT

PAC chairman Nicholas Gumbo said they had instituted a special audit to ensure the public gets value for its money.
“The government often hides under the blanket of confidential expenditure in these security deals. There is nothing like confidential money. This is public money and it must be spent lawfully. We are on this matter,” he said.
…......
RECOMMENDATIONS IGNORED

A repeated complaint by those familiar with the purchase process has been that recommendations of the technical committee of the police, which advises the Interior ministry whose mandate it is to make the purchases, have been routinely ignored.

Routinely ignored!? Technical committee? Dr. Monicah Juma is lying, or these report, routinely ignored, is a misleading.
So what does reality tell us!? The actual performance?

The ministry opted to import the Chinese-made APC with one prototype being shipped in for testing before the entire fleet arrives.
The plan is to acquire at least 100 APCs for the regular police and the administration police in response to complaints by officers that they are often vulnerable to attacks by well-armed bandits and cattle rustlers.
The imported APC was taken to Baragoi in Samburu, but reportedly broke down after several weeks. It was mounted on a lorry and ferried back to Nairobi, where it remains grounded.
The source told the Sunday Nation an order for the first batch of APCs has since been placed.

They broke down in weeks. May be the technical crews did not even elementary maintenance?
Or they were plain substandard choppers? A rip off?

On the issue of helicopters, the ministry preferred the AgustaWestland AW139 model while the police wanted American-made Bell choppers.
In the aftermath of the Garissa University College terrorist attack in April, Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet invited bids for the purchase of four utility helicopters and a troop carrier.
But it was later cancelled and the ministry went ahead to purchase through single sourcing.
This was the second time the IG was cancelling the helicopter tenders and, according to sources, it was partly influenced by cartels fighting for the lucrative tenders. The AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter cost Sh900 million and several more are expected to be delivered soon.
Police had argued against this model, saying there were no available service centres in Kenya.

By now I am giving the benefit of doubt to the Doubting Toms! There is something rotten at the heart of procurement in our great republic. And Rotich's speedy denunciation of the auditor generals report, was imposed on him. He was not acting in his capacity as a COMPETENT, ACE AND HIGHLY-TRAINED FINANCE MINISTER, nor was he in his element as a former head of macropolicy at the same ministry, but his act was that of a frontman for corruption cartels. A facilitator. A cog to be rewarded with deep doses of grease, or other oils naturally.

The twin-engine helicopter has a capacity of 15 people, and since there are no pilots for the Italian-made aircraft, two pilots will be taken to Milan for training on how to handle them. The supplier would also send two pilots who would be attached to the airwing for two months. The police had asked for a troop carrier that can carry at least 18 passengers.

RAISED CONCERN

The purchase of rifles and bullet proof vests has also raised concern within the police hierarchy.
The source said the ministry opted for more expensive Turkish-made G3 rifles than a cheaper version made in Pakistan.
The German G3 rifle model has proved popular with the police service for its durability and accuracy. However, it is produced under licence in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and several other countries.
Contacted, Interior Principal Secretary Monica Juma said all contracts were awarded according to the law.
In a statement sent to the Sunday Nation by ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka, Dr Juma said: “All procurements by the Ministry are carried out strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.

Amazing that strict procedure and provisional adherence still produces such documented lapses! ('amazing' is not harsh vocabulary I suppose!)
Dr. Monicah Juma is lying. Pardon me, is being economical with the truth! Why!? Coz she has no other options. She is a captive. We saw the same scenario with the lady who headed KAA (Mbugua was she? –-Kenya Airports Authority!) The question is Juma a willing accessory or not.

Police have identified the kind of boats they need but there are fears the ministry might ignore them. The source dismissed as “fishing boats” the vessels maritime police currently use to patrol the Indian Ocean.
Before the ministry stepped in, police had anticipated it would have enough aircraft by next month.
At present, the aircraft at the police air-wing are in a deplorable state and cannot be relied on.
Six of its aircraft are “Beyond Economical Repair,” meaning they are essentially written off. They include three Cessna 310 each with a capacity of six passengers, a Cessna 402 which ferries 11 people, a Bell 47 helicopter with a capacity of three and a BO-105 air ambulance.
There are also two Cessna 208 and a Bell chopper which are out for routine maintenance
www.nation.co.ke/news/Battle-for-Sh10bn-security-tenders/-/1056/2825430/-/dncn39z/-/index.html

The purpose of awarding all these monies to the police and army, is the terrorist threat and other insecurity challenges. We saw the Garissa campus massacre and how highly trained men could not move into action merely because there was no 'quick speed' transport. 150 young kenyans dead. But when they arrived, the RECCE did the necessary in 25 minutes.
Good equipment and good competent men make a difference in life and death situations. I like to be totally ruthless about this point. It is a point I think is lost on Monicah Jumah, Richard Rotich, Joseph Nkaissery, Boinnet. This kind of corruption ferrying in substandard goods, crippling the police, is why so many cops died at Baragoi, and so many young Kenyans died needlessly at Garissa.

Contacted, Interior Principal Secretary Monica Juma said all contracts were awarded according to the law.
In a statement sent to the Sunday Nation by ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka, Dr Juma said: “All procurements by the Ministry are carried out strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.

The Public Procurement and Disposal Act (2005) Part VI Clauses 72, 73, 74 and 75 provide guidelines how procurements of the nature you mentioned in your inquiry shall be carried out. The said procurements were carried out in strict accordance to the provisions of law stated above.”

Nothing to worry about then. All is kosher at security.
O God in Heaven, why don't you let everyday be an April Fool's day? Then would we pat the phat butt of Madam Monny! AND wink knowingly at Herr Doctor Richard giving government finances an AAA rating!

www.nation.co.ke/news/Battle-for-Sh10bn-security-tenders/-/1056/2825430/-/dncn39z/-/index.html

[jakaswanga]

WHEN ROTICH IS NOT MISSING IN ACTION AND RECCE STORIES

www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Treasury-Mombasa-Port-Expansion/-/440808/2834328/-/q8v44e/-/index.html

August 15, 2015 (Kwendo Opanga)
Treasury should stop meddling in ports deal

Jica’s senior representative Koji Noda wrote to the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Transport on August 7 and said Jica was deeply concerned about the slow pace towards effecting the loan agreement.
Jica’s chief representative Hideo Eguchi wrote on June 3 to the Treasury Principal Secretary regarding meddling in the tender saying he had serious concerns over major alterations to the on-going process.
–----------
AMENDMENTS
What is going on? First, the National Treasury has introduced eleventh hour amendments to the port tender documents pertaining to the procurement of the company that will operate the two terminals that constitute the expansion of the port.
–----------
It is the process of selecting this entity in which the Treasury is meddling. It has introduced amendments midstream, after bidders have been shortlisted, and done so without informing Jica, which is funding the port as per a Sh32 billion March, 2015 Loan Agreement. What did the original request for proposal which Jica and other stakeholders know, state?
–--------------
But, Jica points out that it was agreed in the concession plan that an operate and transfer model, which a Treasury U-turn now favours, was not a viable option for the port of Mombasa. So, it would appear vested interests have leaned on Treasury to change the rules midstream.
Treasury has in turn leaned on KPA, hence the slow progress. Jica is persuaded the Treasury is acting on behalf of persons keen to see one of the 12 bidding firms selected operator of the Mombasa port. Suspicion has centred on a Middle East company.

It would appear vested -terrorist -- interests have leaned on Rotich and Thugge, just like it is highly likely they leaned on the talented duo to deposit the Eurobond disburse into an alternative private account, uncovered by the law. --'LEAN ON' needs a second look.

Across the nation, glued to their TV screens, Kenyans gaped at the Quacking and ducking, sputtering and stuttering finance secretary to be –-that is how the notorious Onyango Oloo described Henry Rotich's performance when The Uhuruto boss called him forward to introduce his as the coming man at the treasury. Oloo alleged his intimidated performance had to do with having been parachuted from the lower levels to the top of the mandarinate, at a department of blue bloods.

He will be commanding his former seniors. Onyango Oloo thought it was a puppet situation, a pawn move by inner state strategists. Rotich would be an impotent figurehead.

According to page 5 of the April 26th edition of the Standard, Mr. Rotich was the Deputy Director in charge of macro economic policy at the Ministry of Finance since 2006.

That means he was FIVE LEVELS below the minister until just a few days ago. That means he was junior to the permanent secretaries, deputy secretaries, under secretaries and directors that he will now be coordinating and supervising.

Quite a meteoric rise eh?

We all saw the guy sputtering, stuttering, quaking and almost quacking when the President invited him to the State House lectern to say a few words to the wananchi gawking at his image on television screens across Kenya.

Now get this.

All his former bosses are there by dint of the Public Service Commission (the bulk of them at least). The ones who are not going to be relieved of their jobs, retire, or as they say these days, “move on”, will retain their titles and privileges in the Kenyan Mandarinate. It is going to be surreal contemplating the prospect of the relative equivalent of a senior clerk dressing down his former managers- if it comes to that, that is.

But that is NOT what tickled my fancy.

I am made to understand that according to the 50/50 arrangement between TNA and URP, the finance plum job had been RESERVED and GUARANTEED to Deputy President William Ruto.

Those who are assuming that Rotich, because of his Kalenjin surname was Ruto’s pick are in for a rude shock.

demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.nl/2013/04/a-macro-economic-analysis-of-jubilee.html

I searched alternative razor-edged Kenyan commentary for DISPUTATIONS on this take of a self-confessed red rogue, and, finding none, I had to file it as a watershed insight, and wait for the rude shock.

Meanwhile as I thought about that analysis –--I went for the 'abstract control', and I studied a bit of Post-Mubarak Egypt and how the DEEP STATE run by mandarins of the ancient regime, played their cards in the financial decisions of the new Muslim Brotherhood (MB)government of Morsi. In this endeavour I came across the works of Esam Al-Amin who, truly I say unto you, sheds powerful light into the Egyptian quagmire.

Then, knowing Rotich has maximum education –-just like Kamau Thugge and Patrick Njoroge, I always find the need to try to fathom the real reasons for the stupid decisions they make, and the stupid things they say in public to defend those decisions.

When a distinction fellow from Harvard behaves like a moron in office –- for instance sabotaging a port potentially the goose of golden eggs, you have a situation as a teacher. It is clownish. (too, Rotich defended government accountants who submitted audit papers to the auditor General 9 months after the deadline passed. And
2. We have seen ]Kamau Thugge tell PAC in Mombasa,

'The national and county governments, together with the Controller of Budget, agreed on these funds.”
Mr Thugge insisted that in all the expenditures and revenue, his ministry followed expert advice from accountants and that no money had been lost, only that the documentation was the problem .

Documentation on the expenditure of ksh. 24 billion taxpayer splash 'is a problem'!

Let us sit baaaaaaaaack, and turn a mental gear. No need loosing our tempers. Boys could be under forms of hypnosis –-mind control by very scary characters. Boys could be needing more help than rebuke.

If all goes well, there will be a bill to reserve Mpigship (LEGICO membership) for graduates only. This is a degree fetishsm based on the assumption of higher competence of degree holders. A reasonable assumption one might think. But, if even in the professional bureaucracy where trained competence is the rule, in a department ran by a whizzkid from Harvard, we find certified accountants are incapacitated at documenting a mere 24 billion? What are we gonna think now, JICA and Obama cashfloods coming!?

The content of character, the clause of integrity, as old wisdom goes, must be factored as a fundamental in national office. Kamau Thugge is admitting to theft on a large scale. Technically he says 'Problems with the documentation', or may be computer errors, and we also saw the NYS systems cracked. These things happen, can be made to happen.

DISCREPANCIES

Mr Thugge admitted that the threshold of “supported accounts” is documents for every transaction and that there were discrepancies in revenue and expenditures in certain ministries.
“I also find it very hard to believe that the Ministry of Health can spend Sh24 billion without Parliament’s approval,” he said.

This threshold was not met. The Ouko bashing could just turn out to be a red herring. No wonder those at that office faced death threats, more like an old-fashioned hold-up at a bank. Give me the money or I blow your brains off!
But, on the other hand, who is holding the gun to the head of Thugge and Rotich!? Are not our two boys captives? do we not need RECCE to the rescue!

Dear RECCE!

They are 'leaning on' the best our land! This is an SOS!

Stop lazying about, amusing yourself by solliciting bribes from entrepreneurs in the slums who only want a few hours of electricity! Tackle instead these vile terrorists holding the top of the treasury hostage, making them foul themselves so badly, such that a stink now suffocates the building.

Recce officers charged with Sh300,000 extortion

Njoroge and Epeyonon are allegedly members of a gang that has been extorting money from the public, after accusing them of carrying out illegal electricity connections.
The case will be heard on September 15

www.the-star.co.ke/news/recce-officers-charged-sh300000-extortion#sthash.3ThMl7Yd.dpuf

www.standardmedia.co.ke/thecounties/article/2000166444/mysterious-death-threats-on-auditor-general-s-senior-staff

[jakaswanga]

why is he MIA!? now you see him, now you don't.

But now you will hear him!

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER ROTICH SINGS US A LULLABY.

Finally the state secretary for finance found time to appear before the Parliamentary Committee for Public Accounting. It was Thursday 29-10-15. It was a homerun, whereafter all the lovely babies in the state cot called parliament went to siesta.

Baby no worry; about a thing, Coz every little thing, is gonna be alright!



Rise up this morning; smiled with the rising sun;
three little birds pitch by my doorstep;
singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true
Saying this is my message to you –Oh Oh OH!

The crystal ball of the chancellor of the exchequer, surer than that of Makau Mutua on the ICC, has seen the future and the tidings are bright!

O! It is a wonderful world!



"What A Wonderful World"

I see trees of green; red roses too; I see them bloom, for me and you.
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue, And clouds of white. The bright blessed day,
The dark sacred night. And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

The colours of the rainbow, So pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces, Of people going by, I see friends shaking hands.
Saying, "How do you do?" They're really saying, "I love you".

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow,
They'll learn much more, Than I'll ever know.
And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

Yes, I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

Oh yeah.

Now before I get lost completely in these songs, let me remind that I am emotionally framing the import of Rotich's performance in parliament. The framing as an EVENT in national consciousness. The PAC, now headed by Nicolas Gumbo, is of course the self-same body which was brought into disrepute under the chairmanship of the troubled star, General Ababu Namwamba. These creatures which now mingle and freely walk about in their droppings in what should be an August house are known as Mpigs, for a reason. They are on an evolutionary pathway in the reverse direction, having shot off from the Kenyan forward path, after a regressive bombshell of atavism attacked the second liberation. They are very dangerous mutants and contagion is a clear and present danger. Their business with Rotich, I am afraid, was neither public nor in the public interest. They can impeach him if he does not play ball, and so sung a man with the sword of Damocles hovering.

According to their fellow Mpig, Alfred Keter, a mutant famous for taking potshots at Anne Waiguru's achilles heel, these creatures auctioned themselves for handsome payoffs in the impeach Waiguru motion. The mentioned sums range from 500k-1M; and these monies are of course billed to Wanjiku, obviously via the 900M the towering lady stole and which, when the auditor General barked Ho, Rotich and Thugge denounced him for an incompetent buffoon. This episode illustrates how the Mpigs and the Treasury are running a racket to the cost of Wanjiku. They are in a script and on a roll.

Aint it a wonderful world for them. O yeah!

And so ebullient and confident, Rotich sang his lullaby, and the well-fed mutant babies, Mpigs, much appeased, soon dozed off to snore their content.

Jambo Bwanal Kenya nchi yetu hakuna matata.

Now let me tell you a story about Louis Armstrong. I know nothing about him in that sense, but i am no stranger to his music.

Some did fault a Blackman rolling his eyes with such an ingratiating smile, singing such an emotionally convincing, and beguiling song like it is a wonderful world, while the USA was to all practical purposes a segregated society. Blacks treated as litter.

Folklore, I found out, has a devious explanation, totally different from high-brow academia running complicated models of satire.
No sooner wa his schlong withdrawn from a lung than more willing mouths and cu-nts from all races were abreast and at hand, ready to make a rapid recidivist out of him. In such fashion did Monica Lewinsky drain down Bill Clinton's brains, wherefore he was ready to, and nearly traded his presidency. Luckily his wife Hilary saw the folly and advised he could have both wonderful worlds!

I do not for a fact seem to remember any historical record/memoir of any man who experienced a set piece milking of his co.cked di.ck as not wonderful. Big rolling eyes Louis sang it is a wonderful world, an eternally truthful song about schlongs in paradise. No touch of contradiction. That is the secret of the convincing tone. Aint no lie in that song!

Well, it makes the song a great piece for satire if you check this videod version, showing pristine scenery of Vietnam paddies, with the suggestion that, soon, all that would be lain to waste as operation rolling thunder burst upon them. Or, suppose you overlaid it with videos of the Congo rain forest in its awesome beauty, suggesting lots of Black Kurt's are breeding women by force in the rape camps down there in the east? or the picture of an atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima –---O O what a wonderful world! Big big eyed Louis from the Big Easy informs!

That satirical version is a comfortable academic take. No talk of twitching, milking anatomical parts, just gory, war-torn ones.

Now looking at it from the position of the minister, his perks and earnings, why would he not tell Mpigs it is a wonderful world and honestly mean it!? And why wouldn't the Mpigs themselves, super parasites that we know they are, not believe him!

O yeah, it a wonderful world. Cash crunch is fiction. Every little thing is gonna be alright.

This is the message i have for you –--O U O!

Continued:

[jakaswanga]

THE FIN-SEC TAKES TO THE STAGE: IS IT A MUPPET SHOW?

continued from lullaby songs that may not send to sleep.

O yeah, it a wonderful world. Cash crunch is fiction. Every little thing is gonna be allright.

This is the message i have for you –--Ooh U O!

But, just like we saw in the case of his tribesman, the Deputy President Kipchirchir Arap Singh,when he reassured us on the Eurobond, and earlier on the Anglo-leasing disburse to Switzerland, the harmonies in these reassurances tell a tale of indeterminate emotions; they are discordant and betray a turbulence at heart, even skullduggery. They are performances with depth, other depths with murkier layers than the jovial surface of Louis Armstrong. The band kept on playing mellow as the famous ship sank.

Many a times he denied it all. So is this Morse code a note of SOS, a slip of the tongue from the fin-sec!? Let us see!

www.nation.co.ke/news/Treasury-has-no-cash/-/1056/2915658/-/65xp2gz/-/index.html

Treasury has no cash, needs to borrow Sh78bn

By JOHN NGIRACHU Friday, October 16, 2015

The National Treasury on Thursday acknowledged that it is facing a cash crunch, but expressed confidence that the situation would soon improve.

There had been, earlier on, categoric statements by the treasury (stalwart performance by PS Thugge) that there is no such thing as a cash crunch! I don't know if there is anybody who believed them, but could be, Kenya in nchi ya ajabu.

But the detail, and the juice is always in the explanation of a problem, the diagnosis of a crisis. Here is the finance minister's best shot.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich told Parliament’s Budget and Appropriations Committee in Nairobi that a combination of domestic and international loan repayments falling due, the traditional slow collection of government revenue at the beginning of the financial year and demands for disbursements had led to the cash crunch

These are all predictable expenditures. Predictability allows for planning, and luxurious contingency. Even in 2050 in the month of January, teachers will be paid their salaries. Why wait to be surprised on January 28 2050 that the lateness of the disbursement causes a disquiet to put it mildly!? Sossion will no longer be at KNUT, nor Misori at KUPPET, but rest assured there will be other trouble shooters with other names to back!

But I have an idea for goodly professor Kaimenyi 2050 does not exist! So the devil may care, not he! But for the sake of ones sanity, one hopes, in the line of vision 2030, some Kenyan somewhere, even in his mother's womb, is busy planning for teacher's salaries in 2050! january!

I will be damned with Treasuries that failed to read the loan charts and failed to strategise for the date them debts fell due! thereby allowing themselves to be surprised to death!

While this persists, the people should brace themselves for higher interest rates, Mr Rotich said.
However, he also asked government institutions to reduce wastage and improve efficiency in the use of tax money.

Huh!? Man from Harvard had some interesting choice of vocabulary when the auditor general made such suggestions earlier on! Good to see a smart man regaining his smarts. but there is still that ogre John Githong'o. The former anti corruption Czar went on record to declare Jubilee more corrupt than the Kibaki-Raila unity effort of yonder. So it will be great to see a smart man like Rotich taking stock of that, ie not asking government institutions to behave, but instilling and supervising that required behaviour.
Treasury first: with the Eurobond. The Presidency with the Anglo-leasing cash wired irregularly by Uhuru himself may be a dry piece of meat Rotich cannot swallow, but he could make a ritual attempt for the books! The department of defence which, to quote Ouru, is the epicentre of graft, and is passing laws to guarantee financial opacity? that is out of bounds for the smart man I think. Not with soldiers dying in Somali but noveau-rich MCA's doing the don-juan with their widows!

But at least I give marks for 'awareness'. All journeys begin with but a single step! Awareness!

His comments came against the backdrop of a warning by the World Bank to the government to cut back on both its recurrent and development spending.
MPs had summoned Mr Rotich to explain why the government was not meeting its financial obligations, including disbursements for free education and salaries for some public servants

This same World Bank has of course given the Kenyan economy a clean bill of health! ---by mouth of William Ruto!

If a state cuts back on both DEVELOPMENT and recurrent spending, what on earth remains for it to spend money on!?

You guessed it: DEBT REPAY!

Haha Dr. Rotich, are you sure you have taken a good look at the case of Greece!? How is their health under this debt prioritisation regime!?

NB: Rotich denied the Kenyan situation has any parallels with the Greek crisis! I will trust the smart man to change his mind on that after he finecombs all the data at his command!

The moment Prime Minister Joseph Kinyua had to be hauled out to hold fort before an angry parliament, you knew the government was scared.

Does not mean it is not a wonderful world!

O yeah! let me parodise the man from the big easy!

NO ROOM FOR BLUES IN KENYA!

The hips are round, firm and rolling
The streets are wet, rainy and fresh
The shilling is stable, the cash-flow on
the markets are full and the shops open
and even if I do not have a coin to call mine
my big shopping basket is filled to the brim!

and I say to myself, O yeah, it is a wonderful world!

A hitch here and there but the future is bright!
Nothing good ever came my way without fight!

And I will be back!

[jakaswanga]

THE RETURN OF MUSALIA MUDAVADI TO THE DEBATE ON NATIONAL FINANCES!

Don't know if this is another or the same Rubicorn Jukwaa reported he crossed long ago, but it is a significant development. If Ouru really needs a man to get the job done in real time! he gotta know who he gotta call!

Henry Rotich the supposed whizz kid from the Kerio Valley will remember the Safari Course Book telling the story of Tombo the young Maasai who went to Makerere college and ....! There is a song about it. A good song. I admit good songs can be a lot of propaganda for goats.(I believe the melancholic Les Mangelepa did a very good one for Rais Baba Moi, not to mention OK Jazz's Franco's Mobutu candidat na Biso! Nor DDC Mlimani Park's erstwhile masterpiece, Sifa ya Mugabe!) And this very day I listened to a Kinyarwanda song which contends even God wouldn't be a better president of that land than Paul Kagame. This to mark the occasion of Sir Paul's not too subtle elevation to life president. He is stuck to power like a cocaine addict to his powder. A high is a high.

But that was a by the way. Africa.

What I think now is that Dr. Henry Rotich will have to write his memoirs very painfully. There is a national narrative gaining ground in the light of the economic dire straits encumbering the nation, that the whiz kid from the Kerio is a mighty hoax, that he is the personification of the worthless if perplexed academic so much ridiculed in post-colonial African literature, a mere charlatan in a quisling role
–---a kind of Ocol, pitched against Lawino in Okot P'Bitek's masterpiece song.
–---a kind of Obi Okonkwo, how did it all come to this, O brilliant Obi!
–---a kind of Andrea Chilulu, of the great disease one gets after maximum whiteman education, these days to be parodied as Boko Halal!

Our genius from the Kerio returned a 14M profit over 200bn in three months without batting an eyelid! (To be fair, this is not impossible, given zero to negative interest rates as we have seen in the Great West, a west rolling a bit in economic doldrums. At a guess, a savings account there is a fool's move!)

Rotich is evolving into a later-day mirror image of the YK'92 Jirongo group who ruined the Kenyan economy by various state-sponsored scams. These scams pass as economic crimes in retrospect.

CS Henry Rotich defends altering laws to allow cash to be held in US account

BY Moses Michira . November 3rd


Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo and Treasury CS Henry Rotich responds to questions raised by the Public Accounts Committee at Parliament building.

In a meeting with the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee it was revealed that Mr Rotich relied on two amendments to sidestep the Controller of Budget in the settlement of a Sh53 billion syndicated loan directly from a bank account in New York. Payment of the loan from the JP Morgan Bank account has become a hot potato in the Government with Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo denying that her office approved the settlement. "I read mischief in this whole issue. I do not think the Rotich was genuine in the amendments that are now clearly mischief to violate the Constitution," Mbalambala legislator Abdikadir Mohamed said. Committee Chairman Nicholas Gumbo said the proceeds from the Eurobond were not remitted to the Central Bank of Kenya immediately, saying that the funds would have attracted interest rates.

The CS told the committee there were amendments to the Central Bank Act and the Public Finance Management Act, allowing exemptions on specific expenditures that could be met from offshore accounts. "These exemptions are now anchored in the law, and it is legislators who passed that same laws," Rotich said.

It became clear for the first time that Kenya was operating 15 offshore accounts, with Chief Accountant Bernard Ndung'u and his deputy Julius Kilinda as the only signatories.

See Also: Poor Kenyans to pay more for basic items as State seeks to raise Sh64b

The two men signed off the payments from the New York bank. Ms Odhiambo was hard-pressed to explain whether she had approved the loan repayment, saying her office had been approached to check if the credit facility issued by Standard Bank, Standard Chartered and Citi Bank, should be paid. "My signature was not used to make the payments from the JP Morgan account because I am not a signatory to offshore accounts," she said. She had however, approved more payments to ministries and departments, estimated at Sh204 billion in development budgets – most of which were part of the proceeds of the Eurobond.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000181431/cs-henry-rotich-defends-altering-laws-to-allow-cash-to-be-held-in-us-account

So, just asking, some smart lawyer was hired to identify constitutional loopholes created by duplicitous Mpigs to launch offshore accounts operated as private fiefdoms of select treasury officials!? Or was the lawyer's brief to facilitate a plot to CIRCUMVENT standard protocol in dealing with state finances? Circumvention of such is of course the blueprint to a massive fraud, the fin-sec abetting?

That the controller of budgets, if not kept in the dark like a piece of broken furniture in an abandoned yard, was kind of duped to be used as an alibi, proves the nefarious nature of this legal interpretation on which the fin-sec bases himself. He is being dubious; and, at this level, when a ranked Phd from Harvard is being dubious in a ranked corrupt country, that in itself is proof of evil where money is concerned. The moment it takes repeated interrogations to reveal details like Kilinda and Ndung'u are the sole signatories to Wanjiku's foreign kitty, some 15 accounts plus, the hostility of the witness is evident, and his guilt palpable, the treachery manifest. (but is he a mere Patsy!? a pawn in a larger game!?)

That is what I mean by Rotich will write his memoirs painfully. Indisputably clever, he will have to explain why he preferred to be such an outstanding clueless menial, when charged to look after Wanjiku's purse. –--Was he obeying orders? too scared of his owners? was he merely a hired gun, with no qualms whatsoever, nor encumberments of morality so long the pay hit the sky? was it self-conceit and pride, feeding delusions of infallibility like, to quote an American rapper, 'when cocaine runs around my brain'!? Or was he simply out of his depth, lacked competence?
Could it also be even more psychologically complex? That he is gone rogue for the fun of it!? Middle aged and bored to death at his desk, he went into Russian roulette!?

FLAGGED DOWN BY A CORPSE, IT WAS HALLOWEEN!

To recognise just how low the ace from the Kerio has sunk, the corpse that used to be Mudavadi has risen, and, overflowing with contempt, declared he can turn Kenya around in one budget year! like he did before! (now this is the Mudavadi who, together with another whizz kid known as George Saitoti, served Moi in his rotten regime of KANU.) For him, thIS Goldenberg and AngloLeasing scandalised ex KANU stooge, to have the audacity to state that these young digital doctorates of Thugge, Rotich and Njoroge are pieces of toilet paper to wipe the nation's cloaca with and be flushed down the historical sewer, is the story of the decade!

It hints at a Jubilee incompetence beyond endurance! –--propaganda or no propaganda intended.

Wake up Rotich! Before Mudavadi becomes the harbinger of more stringent Irinyes!

[jakaswanga]

IT IS A SEASON FOR MAKE-BELIEVE COMPLIMENTS!

First, the good news!

NAKURU, KENYA: Civil rights groups in Nakuru County have backed Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich's move to ban all international bench-marking and study tours by national and county officers.

Addressing journalists in the county after a public accountability meeting, officials of Nakuru Peoples' Accountability Forum and Centre for Enhancing Democracy and Good Governance (CEDGG), said they have written to foreign missions in Nairobi to deny Governors, their deputies, Speakers of County Assemblies and members’ visas to travel abroad. They noted that foreign travel and conferences were fast draining most county coffers and no action was being taken to curb lavish spending at both county and national governments. "We recommend that monies spent on foreign travel and conferences without valid documentation as shown in the reports of the auditor general for both levels of government be recovered from state officials," Simon Nasieku, the chairman of the Nakuru Peoples' Accountability forum said.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000182980/civil-rights-groups-back-treasury-on-foreign-travel-ban

The ink had not yet dried on the above resolution than ---Praise the Lord! a kind of shot was fired at the own foot.

www.nation.co.ke/news/State-to-spend-Sh100m-on-Ruto-ICC-trip/-/1056/2965154/-/8sd6hwz/-/index.html

State to spend Sh100m on Ruto ICC trip

November 21, 2015

The Kenyan taxpayer will fork out an estimated Sh100 million to finance the government delegation to the nine-day Assembly of State Parties meeting in The Hague.

National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale told Saturday Nation Parliament has taken care of the expenses of 22 MPs and seven senators.
The Kenyan delegation is composed of at least 60 people.
Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohamed and her Defence counterpart Raychelle Omamo are leading the team that also includes solicitor-general Njee Muturi.

This came after Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich banned what he termed non-essential foreign trips because of the cash crunch facing the government.

Were the 60-member delegation to stay in a hotel averaging Sh40,000 a night for nine nights, taxpayers will pay Sh21.6 million for their accommodation.

I scratched my head. Not wanting to be negative.

There are systems of education where children from the slums, sociologically defined as 'social weaklings', a concept considered a stigmatisation by some, are rewarded marks in school just for attending the exam. These slums or ghettos are categorised as economically disadvantaged and culturally backward in this vision. That these pupils will fail the exam is guaranteed, just how miserably is the question. That they bother to attend shows willpower, and that is something on which to build. They will need an excess of that willpower for instance, not to succumb to drug loan addiction and prostitution collaboration, the chief career outlets for the mass in their retarded environments.

It is a controversial vision, but there are statistics out there which point to a backwardness recycling itself, as in a caste system of race in industrialised countries. A caste system is basically defined by social immobility. Like in the last 50 years of independence, no African state has broken the barrier to be industrialised, which is, to juxtapose, a classic case of a slum life and backwardness recycling itself. ----(Okay, the black middle class in the USA is reportedly thriving and expanding, but stuff like BlackLivesMatter, when the lid is lifted off large swathes of destitute areas of cities like Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia, purely black and heavily deprived sprawling urban landscapes, do speak for themselves in their own light.) That is more like a century of social stagnation in the land of opportunity. Blame games and apportioning the blame, we do later.

Familiar with this method where those from the 'socially weak backgrounds' get marks for attending school tests so that they do not get a motive-crashing zero –-----after taking all the trouble to rise up early but arrive late because they had to dodge detractors selling drugs and trying to recruit them on the way----- I decided to see what comes up if I experimentally applied the methodology to our situation, the Kenyan, African situation.
That is Africa as the slum belt of the world. Africa as the economically most destitute region of the world. Africa as the mother of all horribly negative statistics. Africa as the place where politicians and their military are worse than druglords and their capos running the slums of America, turning black girls into pimp and drug utilities at will. The Africa of government soldiers at mass rapes, and rebel groups selling women in open-air slave markets! Not to mention that dictator of the North druging female prisoners from the resistance in secret military prisons, making porn videos of them and blackmailing them into compliance or suicide by ruined honour. ---very effective way to coerce female Arabs into docility they say!

Anyway, my experimental forage into this vision is coming up with some interesting results. First, I have to be patronising, for instance with the African ministers of finance. I have to treat them as good babies who need many inoculations, emotional support and seedling tender care in a big bad world, otherwise they will be mere statistics in infant mortality rates.

Let us start with Kenya for instance. Let us say the finance minister is David Rotich --he could be a mere puppet you know. So I repeat: Let us SAY! He is, on the surface of it, a healthy baby. He is Harvard and Kennedy School and macro-economic posh. He is top Boko . As a doctor you'd chide his parents: 'Hi Hi Hi! that is a heavyweight baby you dropped right there, congratulations!'
A David who would be a Goliath!

But Lo! He, our great David, is from our socially weak environment called Africa. He is handicapped with the, should we say social gene of chronic under achievement! He is very clever yes, like Saitoti yes, like Okonjo-Iweala yes, like you know them all yes , but that is in the boko sense, so he is (and they are) doomed never to 'rise above his/their social weakness for recreating backwardness'.

This infesting mediocrity he has internalised as a system, as a way of professional life. Any incling of deviation therefrom, must be rewarded in some way!

But woebegone be I, as in the introduction to this posting elucidates, the same week in which David Rotich bans 'benchmark' and other money-wasting foreign trips by the political and bureaucratic class, supposedly, is the same week in which we gather the two Obesities in the cabinet, Amina and Omamo, are leading an elephantine delegation hammering a blackhole at the treasury. –--Priorities of course, but in the background of a cash-crunch, high interest rates, a borrowing binge just to pay recurrent expenditures and refund loans, it is a sure case of a ghetto boy being the expected ghetto boy in office.

But today I off my German high horse from which, with a cold stare devoid of any illusion, I clearly see Mali for what it is: a failed prideless state ran by a toy boy. This temporary reprieve from the norm, means I will compliment the boy David from the rotten neighbourhood (Africa Kenya), for, proverbially, daring to open his mouth in an oral. Yes, congratulations, coz David Rotich as financial secretary has hinted at an awareness that there is need for 'haircuts', that is a package of measures to tame wastage of state finances ---(two months ago he was blasting the auditor general for daring suggest so! This apparent change of mind means incremental consciousness on David's side. And I will reward it with a compliment, however meagre it is, because for a social weaklings, it is a monumental step!)

But it also means the situation is dire and denials would be to evolve from a clown into a caricature.

However, on the flip side, Imagine we were to be serious about tackling Kenya's state finances, and were not completely off the German horse. Then we know, seriously, we need RADICAL AUSTERITY, brutal MEASURES to bring sanity to the treasury. When appetising babes like Anne Waiguru and co in a kleptocratic fever during procurements of essentials, stash away close to billion from the state in a financial year, a serious bokoman knows what is needed for strong medicine. But a 'social weakling' from the Africa slums even if he went to Harvard, stays the mentally handicapped decision-maker he was programmed to be.

No benchmarking joy rides abroad for MCA's no more, that is the reserve of Mpigs and higher stations! he!?

NB: For the true face of an austerity regime on a capitalist-minded economy on a cash crunch and debt binge, see Wolfgang Schauble's rolling diktats for Greece. I guess the previous ministers of finance Greece had, were social inadequates addicted to lame measures equivalent to continuing to dig while in a hole, so when the chips were down, hardier breeds of no weak minds had to come to town and rise to the occasion. Tell Greeks point blanc: you will be a German colony now, or go it alone and eat your pride outside.
And wonder above wonders, there are worse things apparently than being a German colony for Greeks. And that is to trust their current elite with the future of Greece. Better colonial Germans than own Greek rot at the top of Greece, the Greeks conceded!

It is a choice which has unnerved me. Wolfgang Schauble is a man not to hide his emotions. As Greece signed capitulation, he looked like Douglas MacArthur ordering the defeated emperor of Japan, Hirohito, where to sign his powers away to the United States of America, no, actually to himself, Pro-Consul General.
I am suffering anxiety. I do not feel Africa is defended by all this particular series of boko robots. I think there is a defect somewhere in their software, pre-rigged. But where? Perhaps Africa's intellectual defences are already overrun? (and in Fanonian and Cabrallian thesis, culture becomes the flagbearer of resistance?)
I will write about it at length in piece called: where is the Haram in Boko? In search of Halal Boko. (this is when you translate Boko Haram in Hausa to loosely mean Western Book learning is evil!?)

NB: There is the Africa historically talked of as a whiteman's burden, don't know if the whiteman outsourced this burden to the white woman, Christin Lagarde. Tough luck for us she is French!

[jakaswanga]

NOT YET GAME OVER

Henry Rotich is a natural born optimist. That is better than wondering if the cabinet secretary for finance is a cynic. He is an optimist because in spite of all the indicators reading red, he has stuck to a public narrative of all is ship-shape, the band plays on, the party goes on. There is no sinking, only rising!


From left, Tanzanian Finance minister Saada Mkuya Salum, Kenya's Henry Rotich, Uganda's Matia Kasaija and Rwanda's Claver Gatete.

Were he a politician, haa, I would have simply shrugged, and, a resigned yeah, wondered who in his right mind would believe a politician's talk. But Rotich is a technocrat, haa, he was hired not to sell good PR-tales to a seemingly stupid populace, but to take care of business, public business as opposed to the private business of his appointing authorities –-haa. Now, to adequately take care of public business, especially financial business which is his brief, requires a cold look at facts, a correct appraisal of figures, thereto that a correct diagnosis be made, crisis or not, and the correct fix applied. But to pretend to take care of public business while running other errands undefined, requires a different scenario. A distortion of figures, a PR interpretation of facts, a misrepresentation of policy and purpose, and a salesmanship of lies unspeakable. Ordinarily not a technocrat's first instincts.

Yet Technocrat Rotich went on air to deny there was a cash crunch. Technocrat Rotich went on air to deny heavy loss of money through graft; neither did the same think the high interest rates were that much of a problem for business.

Even to casual observers, the finance minister started to look like a deluded genius: crisis? what crisis? The vigilant IMF noticed the slightly power drunken talk and rushed a crack-team to Nairobi. I called it a vote of no confidence by Mama Christin in her son.

Neither was the economist and nation commentator David Ndii amused. He showed it.

Moment of truth for Jubilee get-rich quick schemes

November 7, 2015. By DAVID NDII

www.nation.co.ke/news/Moment-of-truth-for-Jubilee-get-rich-quick-schemes/-/1056/2945712/-/2lo2igz/-/index.html

The original purpose of issuing a Eurobond was to offset the $600 million syndicated loan borrowed to support the shilling in 2011.
The figure mentioned at the time was $500 million to $1billion.
How it shot up to $2 billion and why the government decided to tap another $750 million is hard to understand.
A year later, we have gone back to commercial banks and borrowed another $750 million syndicated loan due in two years.
That is a total of $3.5 billion of unplanned commercial debt costing us $230 million or thereabouts in interest or Sh230 billion at current exchange rate.
SMART TECHNOCRATS
It is equivalent to the counties’ share of national revenue for last financial year.
I am asked frequently these days how our smart technocrats could have let this happen.
My stock answer is that Greece, Argentina, Iceland and the other countries that have been in similar mess lately have very smart technocrats.

One week later there is another bombshell. Our status as loan junkies is undeniable. The politicians Uhuruto keep on saying everything is alright. That is the reassuring lullaby act of a normal mother cuddling her treasure, –-electoral treasure in this case. That is not out of script. But off message are the technocrats when they too, like faithful political sheep, join the lullaby chorus (What the notorious b6k of Jukwaa used to call Kumbaya singing)

Here is the bombshell.

Loans spree to continue next year by over Sh542bn: Report

Sunday, November 15, 2015. By BRIAN NGUGI

The government’s borrowing spree that has in the past few months raised eyebrows and attracted greater scrutiny of public expenditure, will continue in 2016, according to the latest financial plans seen by the Sunday Nation.
The 2015 Budget Review and Outlook Paper, reviewing recent economic developments and outlining the government’s fiscal plans for the next financial year, shows that Treasury expects to borrow at least Sh542 billion in the financial year 2016/17 to plug gaps in the national budget.

“The fiscal deficit in FY 2016/17 will be financed by net external financing of Sh239 billion (3.3 per cent of GDP) and net domestic borrowing of Sh239.8 billion (3.3 per cent of GDP),” the documents tabled in National Assembly last week show.

and man Otishotish had this to say in a blood-curdling rejoinder to Wanyee

(a) Kenya last year borrowed $2.75 billion in a Eurobond, money that has not been properly accounted for but will have to be paid back with interest. Did you see anyone from the IMF or World Bank forcing Kenya to do that or involved in any part of that getting into the debt of "Western imperialists"?

(b) Kenya borrowed $4 billion for the SGR. Did you see anyone from the IMF or World Bank forcing Kenya to do that? (Apparently, the debt burden is not all "Western.) On the contrary, the World Bank's advice was that Kenya instead refurbish its existing rail lines, the cost of which would have been around $300 million.

(c) After mismanaging things in just this year, the government last month took out a syndicated loan of $750 million just to keep going briefly. Did you see anyone from the IMF or World Bank forcing Kenya to do that?

(d) ....

Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/posts/recent#ixzz3s8fQZs3q

But Rotich has another lullaby ready, creative man!
www.nation.co.ke/business/Loans-spree-to-continue-next-year-by-over-Sh542bn/-/996/2957126/-/129cwhk/-/index.html

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, however, says the overall budget deficit is projected to decline as major infrastructural projects such as the ongoing Standard Gauge Railway are completed.
The documents show that the government has retained its priorities for the past two years, including investing in agriculture and food security, infrastructure, health care, education and entrenching devolution.

KENYA CAN BE NO GREECE, SAYS ROTICH. --he said that in parliament to the PAC Mpigs.

Jukwaa has been on the Greece's case of course, and yours truly some more, so let us find out how it ended for the debt-addicted consumerist Greeks.

GAME OVER!

To be continued

[jakaswanga]

ROTICH FIRES A THUNDERBOLT! BUT WHY IS IT NOT EXPLODING DREAD?

The national, state secretary for finance has spoken. He was giving another response to Raila Odinga who has called for his resignation on the Eurobondgate. But unlike Anne Waiguru who chose a subtle, ironical and occasionally very cheek literary style to rebut and abuse her critics, the Harvard lvy has decided on brass tacks. And what a thunderbolt he flung!

But it is a dangerous one, not at the hurt it will do Raila, but the likely laughing stock it makes of the minister.

The National Treasury accused Cord leader Raila Odinga of a plot to scare away investors through his “false” Eurobond theft claims.

ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

He claimed that Mr Odinga’s statements were meant to hurt the economy through sabotage by keeping away investors.

Yah!? And this Odinga man is not arrested an pinned down a long time for treason!? We the commoners are working overtime to make ends meet, hordes barely surviving, and here is a madhafaka undoing it all, and there he goes, a presidential candidate of all things!
Unless, and this is the danger, Rotich is just farting in public, and he knows it, we know it, and the joke is on him!
That is
He the ace Harvard technician, has returned into a debt junkie, the nation Kibaki wrenched from Moi incompetence and weaned some from debt. The Othaya man with Raila as his troublesome sidekick had set Kenya on a healthy path, then behold! Enter the Jubilee hurricane of backwardness!
Perhaps this is the reason Rotich's accusation of Raila –-which is a very heavy charge, achieves but shrugs. There has been no rigorous external audit of the Eurobond, and when it comes to money, third expert opinions will be sought. Weak-brained or feeble-minded Treasuries which need IMF crack-team supports every now and again are hardly authorities whose (professional or otherwise) opinions carry water –--if you ask me for a considered opinion.
It is like the ministry of defence now. They have left Kenyans to rely on the enemy, Al-Shabaab, to inform them of the fate of their loved ones!

Here is the treasury in glory.

Treasury accuses Raila of plot to wreck economy

mobile.nation.co.ke/news/Treasury-accuses-Raila-of-plot-to-wreck-economy/-/1950946/3035636/-/format/xhtml/-/dgd6qiz/-/index.html

The National Treasury accused Cord leader Raila Odinga of a plot to scare away investors through his “false” Eurobond theft claims.
The National Treasury on Friday accused Cord leader Raila Odinga of a plot to scare away investors through his “false” Eurobond theft claims.

Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, who is among three Treasury officials whose resignations Mr Odinga has demanded, said the claims of theft by the ODM leader are based on “outright lies and subversion of the truth for political gain at the expense of the Kenyan economy”.
And as Mr Rotich came out fighting, Central Bank of Kenya chairman Mohamed Nyaoga gave Mr Odinga until Monday to withdraw remarks he made linking him to the alleged theft of Sh87.7 billion Eurobond funds.
Mr Rotich said various state-sanctioned audits, including those by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI), had absolved the Treasury from any wrongdoing, yet Mr Odinga had persisted with his allegations.

ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

He claimed that Mr Odinga’s statements were meant to hurt the economy through sabotage by keeping away investors.

“The Kenyan people must hold him to account for lost opportunities now and in the future. There is nothing new in his claims,” Mr Rotich said, accusing the former Prime Minister of engaging in malicious destruction of the reputations of public officers and institutions without presenting evidence of misconduct.

(READ: Raila to face court battles as he names Eurobond ‘thieves’)

“In this day and age, it is shameful that someone can cast aspersions on independent, reputable and highly regulated institutions such as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, JP Morgan Chase Bank and Citibank New York without evidence,” said the CS.
“Anybody who is sensible and well-intentioned will be able to see that the claims that are now being made by the former Prime Minister are false and misleading.”

COVER UP

On Thursday, Mr Odinga raised questions on the whereabouts of Sh87.7 billion of the Eurobond proceeds, arguing that top Treasury and Central Bank officials acted under instructions from someone senior in the Jubilee administration to cover up what he described as the “grand robbery of Kenya”.
He demanded the resignation of Mr Rotich, Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge and Chief Accountant Bernard Muiruri Ndung’u, for allegedly for covering up the theft.
He named 10 top Treasury and CBK officials, who he claimed received instructions from a network of top Jubilee officials working together with intermediaries in London, New York, South Africa and Qatar to hide the theft through money laundering.

Mr Odinga demanded explanations from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where the money was banked and from the lead transaction advisers, JP Morgan Chase Bank, South Africa branch, on how the money was moved and spent.

NO FUNDS LOST

Page 2 of 2

[jakaswanga]

DISCLAIMER: Ever since German financeman Wolfgang Schauble insulted the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, that, if he wanted to be taken seriously by the big boys, he should do more homework than siesta's, I have been hot on the cultural trail. That means I have found Patrick Njoroge a greater gem to indulge myself than the rest of the plastic dead-pan brains polluting the Kenyan treasury.

The German's quip was of course a snobbish, prejudicial, insulting Neurozone attitude at the so-called 'Mediterranean work ethic'. the working day starts at 9 and ends at 1030. The lunch break then starts at 1100 and goes to 2pm. From whence the siesta begins up to end work day. That is the extreme end of the caricature. The workday allegedly shortens as you cross the Mediterranean sea, and by the time you hit the equator, the concept of a working day itself has disappeared! The states are run (down) by beggars and thieves, with politicians being both.

And then the heavens opened and there was Patrick Njoroge! Neither a beggar nor a thief! Jesus Christ! Culture! Give me a gun!

But let us take a quick look at the alter ego of Patrick Njoroge. It is a Dr. Jekyll Mr Hyde act up there you know.

GIVE ME SOME MCNAMARA COLD!

This harsh commentary on the cabinet secretary for finance, Henry Rotich, will be premised on the following parameters.

1.

Kenya proposes to spend $4.66 billion on public debt repayments in the financial year starting June, effectively locking 20 per cent of budget expenditure into debt repayment and putting the country’s hopes of ....

1b.

Kenya to spend $4.6 billion of revenue on paying debt

Kenya’s debt expense estimate is contained in the budget summary for the 2016/17 financial year submitted to parliament by the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich.

In the estimates, Kenya is proposing that out of its $2.15 billion going to principal repayment, $1.72 billion or 79 per cent will be spent on domestic debt with the remainder settling foreign debt.
Of the $2.51 billion marked for interest, $1.97 billion will go towards settling the domestic debt and the rest for foreign debt.

John Mutua, the public finance programme officer at the Institute of Economic Affairs, expressed concern that the payment of interest on existing debt exceeds the repayment of principal by 16.2 per cent.

www.theeastafrican.co.ke/business/Kenya-to-spend--4-6-billion-of-revenue-on-paying-debt--/-/2560/3203828/-/item/0/-/prlmly/-/index.html


===============================

Kenya spent close to 40.9 per cent of its tax revenues to settle its debts in the first nine months of the 2015/16 financial year. Data from the Treasury shows that the country spent $3.17 billion in the year to March, to service its debts against tax collections of $7.75 billion over a similar period.

ALSO READ: Kenya looking to hedging to pay external debts

Budget deficit

As at the start of the 2015/16 financial year, Kenya’s debt stood at $31.6 billion, which is 67 per cent above the $18.9 billion three years ago.

Thomas Kinyonda, an economist said the country will struggle to bring down interest rates, inflation and this puts at risk the country’s ratings.
“We are staring at undesirable fiscal consequences. We have seen the interest rates remain high, raising the cost of money for businesses.

As it is, our debt is growing faster than tax revenues. We can either grow the tax base or accumulate more debt. I feel the government will prefer widening the tax bracket,” Mr Kinyonda said.

And so it came to pass, the tax bracket was widened.

2. The agreed, new IMF protocol to prioritise debt repayment: 'PRE-EMPTIVE APPROACH!'

www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000177624/imf-pushes-kenya-to-cut-ballooning-public-debt

Kenya will hire a full time director general in charge of debt as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pushes Kenya to manage debt. The Bretton Woods institution says Kenya will have to adopt at least five new measures to manage its ballooning debt. In its September 2015 country report on Kenya, the lender has disclosed that Kenyan authorities have adopted a pre-emptive approach to process debt repayments.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000177624/imf-pushes-kenya-to-cut-ballooning-public-debt ...

Pre-emptive approach is like when a company is under receivership and bankruptcy management. It is stripped to pay off creditors first. A very modern Greek tale!

3. The corruption rate (at the 30% rate) or otherwise high.

4. Vision 2030, industrialisation kingdom come.

5. The debt portfolio which is based on infrastructure 'profit projections' (or pegged to economic boom times) to repay. A small change of weather (like the Ugandans and Rwandese changing their god-damn fickle minds, and our forecasts spin). But, even if we leave our bad neighbours apart, what happens if the SGR does not make ends meet. China will have its pound of flesh cut from elsewhere on Wanjiku's body. –--Of course Henry Rotich wont be there when the trouble matures!

TAXING PARAFFIN THAT MUCH IS ROTICH'S MENTAL COLLAPSE

Who uses paraffin, as fuel, and as light!? You are talking poor countryside folk and urban economic delinquents in the squalor dormitories around the cities. The all dredging tax bracket nets them in. But in exchange for what?

Now, here is how I reason Rotich's mental collapse.

The reason the United States fights wars in the middle east and keeps an awesome Indian Ocean and Atlantic command fleet –-dominating sea lanes, is because of the USA's discoverY at about the turn of the last century, that cheap oil is its elixir. On official records it is reported American secretary of defence, 1961-1968, (and later World Bank head 1968-1981), Robert McNamara, threatened all OPEC countries thus: over prices can be negotiated, a stop of flow is a war you loose and all of you die.

The unofficial version is more colourful: you cut our oil, we fwack you with all your gods off those fwacking wells! Oil is the blood in our veins, it stops we die. Cheap oil is why the USA baby-sits Saudi Arabia, probably the most reactionary regime on the surface of the earth! it is the economy stupid.

I am deliberately mentioning McNamara because he went to the same school as Rotich, and they both worked for the same World Bank, albeit the American at the top, while our man from the Kerio valley did at the bottom.
Thinking like McNamara, I would reckon the price of fuel to the suffering Kenyan people, and to the Kenyan economy, is our most important 'inflationary determinant' in the general economy. The Mother of all prices. I wouldn't touch it with open alternatives available. –--Of course fuel&Oil companies have the government bureaucrats in their pockets. While the golbal market price of oil has more than halved, they are forcing Rotich to behave as if that statistic is fictional, so as to make super profits and, internally reasoned, pay more taxes of which Rotich is a craving maniac!

But that is not yet Rotitch's mental collapse. His mental collapse is one word: IRAN

Iran has more gas, more paraffin, more cheap fuel than you want to know what to do with. And the sanctions have been eased by Obama. Early birds are catching the worms. A –-see the China template-- government to government deal with the national oil company of Iran and the Kenyan cooking consumer, gas or paraffin, is in paradise. The resultant freed disposable income can be spent on other consumer articles which will expand our manufacturing base to cater.

Industrialisation is chiefly consumers buying more luxury goods. Due to exploding disposable income! And that can be engineered by kinds of tax and interest rate regimes.

But aint it the politics stupid!?

Being in the American orbit, and with security pacts with Israel, Iran is off limits, no much less because Hilary and congress are likely to punish those seeking the Ayatollah's hand any which way. And Rotich, unlike McNamara, does not have the depth to reason cheap fuel for Kenya is his speed to industrialisation by 2030 --that is if the date means anything at all. Instead, he writes a hysterical budget increasing the taxes on paraffin, the fuel of the destitute. That is mentally too low, and if one went to Harvard the empire-running school, it is a total zero!

Come on men! Look around you and the globe. People are making tough decisions for their countries and moving on! No one likes being a dog tethered to the whims of some imperial power at afar. And to make it worse there goes Uhuru Kenyatta begging for handouts in Germany, and just about everywhere else. schauble had some advise for the Kenyan in private: less theft, more sense, less begging, more pride, hard work, more profit.

The better option is to trade, for instance with Iran. Kenyatta the father afte rall traded with apartheid South Africa when sanctions were on against the boers. Reason? We had some excess pyrethrum we could sell to no one else. Why let it rot and have the farmers go bankrupt? –-I imagine the boer regime needed the pyrethrum to make teargas to do what Nkaissery is doing to CORD adherents on Mondays since short!

Such a huge budget and then a paraffin tax on half blind poverty-stricken grandmothers! --Yawa! thinking of the 2 billion stolen at NYS in one month!

Quote:
Kenya proposes to spend $4.66 billion on public debt repayments in the financial year starting June, effectively locking 20 per cent of budget expenditure into debt repayment and putting the country’s hopes of a lower inflation and interest rate regime in doubt.

I need comparative tables!

I gotta write about austerity new looks!

[jakaswanga]

ROTICH IS A GOOD KID, BUT THAT IS ALL

Austerity is an attempt to align more closely expenditure and revenues. Fiscal discipline –--O the way it sounds in German IS like something martial---, becomes the lauded euphemism for cost-cutting measures, reducing spending and increasing taxes for the poor, even as the rich top 1% own 90% of the economy.

BREAKING DOWN 'Austerity'

Austerity measures generally are the response of a government whose public debt is so large that the risk of default, or the inability to service the required payments on its debt obligations, becomes a real possibility.

Default risk can spiral out of control quickly; as an individual, company or country slips further into debt, lenders will charge a higher rate of return for future loans, making it more difficult for the borrower to raise capital.

Another, truer definition of austerity is the re-evaluation of the value of labour, downward. A bit of political economy will do.

In the case of a so-called reforming mature neo-liberal order, the going euphemisms are terms like flexibilisation, modernisation and restructuring: these mean labour is stripped of say, social power, and, in essence, made more subservient to the dictates of capital in the productive process. For instance, if 'weekend' (and over-) work was originally –-as negotiated by powerful unions--- paid extra rates, modernisation means any day of the week is any standard day of the week. A Sunday is just a day like Monday. The employer pays flat rates, period.

Flexibilisation means no rightful, long-term contracts; a worker is paid for the work he does when the work is there, he is switched on and off like a bulb when needed, exactly like the watu wa mkono in our construction sites .. here at the PERIPHERY. The day is a daily forage like the ancestral hunter gatherer. The rest is unpaid free time. That is lean.

For shift workers where, traditionally, citing something called the disturbance of the biological rhythm, night rates were higher than day rates to compensate the maladjusted clock, modernisation means anytime in a 24-hr period henceforth is paid the same, standard day rate. That science of biological rhythms, like jet lags , becomes nonsense because it impedes capital's profit rates: these are the kind of stuff French workers are threatening to sabotage the Euro football tournament for. Membership of Unions too, is discouraged actively. Union members get no promotion, no bonuses if any. Paid holidays are shortened, work day is arbitrarily extended if need be, and accident insurance at work becomes the responsibility of the workers. And remunerations are frozen over time, uncorrected to inflation, waiting for the boom time to unfreeze. But nor for the top who, like the parasitic aristocrats who once tethered Europe to feudalim, continue to swim in cream.

That is an introduction to high neo-liberal modernisation of the work place and labour relations when the rates of profit bleep red. Or even if they don't, but worker resistance is disorganised or Unions compromised. Capital then tends toward the slavery model. (Qatar and the labour to build her stadiums to host the world cup may interest students of the labour squeeze. After the abstract we come home to Kenya, and take a look at Atwoli and Sossion, and the cartoon in which Atwoli adressed an empty labour day stadium: only the employed came! you know Kenya is all informal sector!).

Now let us see how neo-liberal Henry Rotich does his austerity in peripheral Kenya. We recall 41% of all the tax revenues he collects is to pay off old debt, and this is at a time when massive infrastructural networks are being laid, which really are more loans. Then there is the horror of the elephant in the room, which is that we have already seen him running one of the most corrupt 'treasury regimes' in Africa, if not the world.

O thy inverted genius!
you are standing tall yes!
but can't walk nowhere that way!

Survey: Kenya ranked third most corrupt country in the world

By Dominic Omondi .February 27th 2016

NAIROBI: Kenya is the third most corrupt country in the world. This is according to a survey on prevalence of economic crimes released in Nairobi yesterday by audit firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). According to the survey, Kenya only fared better than South Africa and France. The findings come a day after President Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenyans were experts in stealing, whining and perpetuating tribalism. The President said this while addressing Kenyans who live in Israel.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000193065/survey-kenya-ranked-third-most-corrupt-country-in-the-world:

The audit firm found that Kenya beat the rest of the world in economic crimes such as embezzlement, bribery and procurement fraud. More worrying from the survey is the declining confidence in the ability of law enforcers to deal with these crimes. "A worrying trend in the survey is the low levels of confidence in local law enforcement's ability to investigate and prosecute economic crimes," said PwC's Forensics Leader in Eastern Africa Muniu Thoithi.

Oh!? He is not running it you say!? then what is he, really, with all that Ivy League education and fancy title: Mister Minister!?

Could he be a mere puppet on somebody else's chain!?
--God forbid, I remember an African story from the ancestors. It was one of the most morbid displays of the hierarchies of power in Africa. A certain Kamuzu Banda was transitting through Embakasi. (Now I have to explain to the wired 8-4-4 generation Kamuzu Banda was some His Excellency of a monster who long ago presidented the Zamunda republic Malawi. Embakasi is how the current JKIA airport used to be known, those old days before an upscale, those too were the days the legendary band Mangelepa were inspired to script the hit song EMBAKASSY!

It came to pass that in the VIP lounge, the shoe lasses of Dr. Banda, president for life, loosed. His Monstrous Excellency promptly clapped his hands looking at his minister for foreign affairs, then pointed at his shoes. The minister knelt on the floor to tie them up. The doctor president then patted him on the back and pinched his ears. 'You will get far, my dog!' The life president is said to have promised. The whole entourage nodded jelously. In Kenya too, it was of course a poorly kept secret that for a non Mumbi to be a minister, he or she had to confess loyalty by bending for Jomo Kenyatta to whip his/her buttocks with the presidential cane! –-have to ask the son if his father's fetish traumatised him some!)

It is therefore possible times could have moved on but some things stayed the same, like the position of an African minister of anything wherever he/she is. (The statistic denoting Africa's slice of the cake in the global economy seems to be one of things which has stayed the same despite the passage of time, still hovering at less than 4%, despite a decades of 10% growth rates culminating in sky-rocketing rebases!)

Find Africa on the economic map! Past, current or projected!



In population it is easy, Africa is a star riser!



ROTICHIAN AUSTERITY.

He made a big announcement of it once, Man Henry. Just like Uhuru Kenyatta who croaked about a too high public wage bill at the beginning of his term. All came to naught. Perhaps the first test of seriousness when it comes to austerity, is to tackle WASTE, chiefly the form of THEFT. If the water bill is too high, first seal all the leaks, and do not leave any taps leaking nor running for nothing.

So: how much can the treasury save were it to tackle graft? How much money would be available were the position of Kenya to improve from one of the most corrupt countries to an, for starters, moderately corrupt!

I mean instead of ksh. 2Bn stolen from NYS, ksh. 100 million only looted. Instead of EUR 1bn Eurobond stolen, only Eur. 100 million. And ad infinitum the same reduction factor throughout all those scandals which inundate and incapacitate the state of Kenya! it is a tidy pile saved!

This my arbitrary amateur math, I can assure you, nets the treasury more money than taxing half-blind old rural folks out of (nyangile) paraffin-driven safari lantern lamps!

And imagine I figured that out without being Ivy league econs!

It means if Harvard alumni Rotich were to go to work on austerity for a few hours a day, and just on a limited Mediterranean work ethic with his Ivy-league big brains, (to demand he goes German would be futile since old dogs have that saying about them!), he could shine like Tom Mboya (London School of Economics, like Kibaki).

But, and now with cold heart, broken several times over by super potentials, were Henry Rotich and Patrick Njoroge, with their Ivy league heavyweight brains, to run a German work ethic at finance, I guarantee we would burst Deng Hsiao Ping's freak record run of 25% growth rates for a quarter century! (go away Lee Kew Yuan!)

That is why I go with Emilio Mwai Kibaki. He sighed. 'I could not do more because I only had goats around me. Goats in cabinet, goats at the treasury! Goats everywhere in government and beyond!'

And yesterday Henry Rotich just read another goat's budget!

It isn't his fault though. He is after all, just another pawn on the chessboard. Kamuzu Banda's galore.

Continued.

[jakaswanga]

DOWNSIZING THE ARISTOCRACY IS NOT A ROTICHIAN OPTION

How about a hair cut?

Taking a look at the salaries and perks of our Mpigs, (law-makers if you respectfully wish), returns a deep problem. Time to wonder if it is structural and beggars radical surgery: can we really say the market value of the 'commodity' they produce, for us to consume, aka service they render within the context of the Kenyan GDP, sustains their remuneration?

Differently put: are they worth their pay? Or is theirs a rip-off racket?

The answer has dangerous implications, we are all aware.

–--Of course Rotich wouldn't dare confront them, whatever the answer. They already bared their fangs at him on the issue, some will remember. Picky your fights. They would impeach him for heresy. It is the politics stupid, he!?

The result is that we have the neo-liberal stalwart from Harvard coughing up looter-wages to the political class, draining away over 40% of the income generated from tax to international loan sharks, loosing 30% of total expenditure to graft, and, like some insatiable monster, aiming a sucker proboscis at the emaciated veins of the destitute, starving maize roasters, mandazi vendors and roadside banana hawkers. Fwacka is surrendered, intimidated into a will-less dummy.

This is why politicologists talk of a hijack of the African state by tropical gangster politicians. The hijack, in addition, reduces the whizzkid technocrats with their fancy grades in trades like economics, to the status of select errand boys in attendance at a banquet, Ithakan handmaids in the house of the absent King, busy with woers. I love to ever repeat, that the cream of the aces which boasts Rotich, Thugge, Waiguru, Njoroge, Odhiambo, have more than the correct education to know, as they say, what is for sale around the market for what is the price. That is, they know it is a sham for a Kenyan Mpig to earn like an American senator; they recognise it is a dangerous and demotivating distortion for MCA's to earn more than experienced employed doctors; and they surely do intellectually import the consequences of the data heralding desperate income inequalities. But there they are, claiming they are right side up, and right side at work in the disciplines they majored in, in which case ahead we steam, roaring to places we should be, our thrust the sound of thunder! 2050 in time we arrive, mission accomplished before the deadline! Here is some much needed credit to the treasury.

Kenya emerges among prosperous countries in Africa

Rwanda also makes it to the top 12 states in Africa, according to report.
Thursday June 2 2016

www.nation.co.ke/business/Kenya-named-among-prosperous-countries/-/996/3227898/-/sk2skw/-/index.html

Kenya and Rwanda are the only East African countries to make the top dozen most prosperous states in Africa, according to a new report.

The Legatum Institute’s 2016 Africa Prosperity Report reveals how economic growth across Africa is not necessarily being translated into higher levels of prosperity in individual countries.
Researchers at the international think tank, which is based in London, sought to determine what level of prosperity African countries can and should be expected to deliver, given their level of wealth.
The report released on Wednesday places Kenya in 11th place, with its highest ranking for personal freedom, entrepreneurship and opportunity and only its low status for safety and security.

I am a doubting Thomas. Not that I doubt we are among the best in Africa, no, there is not much competition around the block really. It just that my eyes are too open to ignore HOW local excellence rates in the rough seas of the global economy. I do not see Kenya as a predator yet. We are a meal being fought over. Anyway, that is a story of foreign capitals foraging.

Meanwhile the value of the labour of a Kenyan member of parliament, a Mpig, or a councillor (MCA)as is now paid out, all mount to ( pre-industrial) aristocratic parasitism, feudal idolatry: imagine these are part-time jobs in some very efficient economies. –-No, that is a joke: we all know all the Kenyan senators and Mpigs who are lawyers, are actively in practice! (so which is the moonlight portfolio!?) And could it be Doctor Khalwale is still seeing patients in the business of healing!?

Talk about light duties!

Ha ha! Even in Kenya then, these jobs –-senator, Mpig, are light stuff! they are (combinable) part-time jobs in the real economy! Now, that is a no brainer. If an amateur economic critic like I can Sudoku it out, imagine then what an Ivy-league econs grad could do with it, if worth his salt of course! He could develop and implement a model that pays the real 'contributive value' rate!? Such a fin-sec could encaptivate the nation with a performance in parliament that wets Wanjiku like no lewd fantasy ever did a woman's crotch.

Make it official! Political office is a part-time job. Full time Mpig is half the taxation of a full-time secondary/TTC school teacher! Or did some Mpig really think reading those bills and debating/sleeping in parliamentis tougher than reading organic chemistry or preparing derivative calculus for form four lessons !? --Come on Sossion! come on Akello Misori! take an advanced copy of the theory of the value of labour, go to hide in a hotel with a motivating single female tutor who majored in (econometric) maths, go at it at a German work ethic, call Atwoli and let the Unions write to Patrick Njoroge: saying: No political office can pay higher than a secondary school Pricipal in Kenya: show cause if you think different!? then he can sip the fifth ammendment to death! in which case you write to the cabinet!

That is the first reform I would do; have a real econometric yardstick for the value of labour in the Kenyan economy. 'Rebase' remunerations in the political sector. I could just wipe out politics as the most competitive employer!

Now, what do we do with the thieves of state? I have not figured out that one yet. Summary executions like those plain-clothes undercovers do? Mob (justice) lynching and setting ablaze? Reform the judiciary once again, now that it is resting at the bottom of the sewer of graft, like a titanic which famously sank? Or forgive and turn the other cheek like a good Christian?

Sometimes, watching the Kenyan multitudes cheer for thieves and looters who impoverish the nation, I have a vision they are like a Roman or Parisian crowd of old. They will cheer the same way on the day of reckoning when some Paul Kagame like cold-blooded sheriff strolls into town and makes the execution of these kleptocrats a public show. --Thinking of a famous novel:

EGWUGWU: UMUOFIA KWENU! DO YOU WANT MORE HEADS TO ROLL!?
hands up those who will respond a thunderous NOOOOOOOOOO! FORGIVE

Even for the son of God himself men bayed he be killed horribly. Every popular thief being cheered by a crowd must remember this inherent instability of mobs! Wanna call a mob's bluff? (hair cut or cut throat?)

B good.