Politician and businessman Jimi Wanjigi has termed the numbers published by the Central Bank of Kenya as an outstanding public debt as being fictitious and meant to hoodwink Kenyans into paying for debts that do not exist.
Speaking during the initiation of a public conversation on the state of the economy, a look at the public debt, Mr Wanjigi said that he commissioned a “first-ever fraud investigation into the public debt covering a period of eight financial years from 2014/15 to 2021/22.
“I established red flags indicating that the public publicized outstanding public debt of Ksh 8.4 trillion appeared inauthentic. In simple terms, there is no outstanding public debt – the 8.47 trillion figures publicized by CBK as outstanding debt is fictitious,” he said.
According to Mr Wanjigi, the appropriated debt repayment under the Recurrent Expenditure was Ksh 5.6 trillion in the eight financial years. Adding the outstanding debt that President Mwai Kibaki left of Ksh 2.37 trillion as of June 2014 to President Uhuru’s authorized debt of Ksh 2.001 trillion totals 4.371 trillion. “If the amount appropriated for the repayment of the public debts, Ksh 5.6 trillion, was used for repayment of authorized debt of Ksh 4.371, Kenyans would have been left with a credit balance of Ksh 1.23 trillion and no outstanding debt.”
According to Mr Wanjigi, the so-called public debt is the massive looting of public funds camouflaged as “public debts.” He says almost all the debts that the current regime has incurred cannot be linked to any “authorized development projects.”
“Over the last eight years, the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta borrowed unauthorized domestic debt totalling Ksh 2.9 trillion and unauthorized external debt of Ksh 1.8 trillion. The total unauthorized debts of Ksh 4.098 cannot be linked to any authorized development projects,” he added.
Mr Wanjigi called on Kenyans to audit the individuals seeking public office, for they are the reason Kenyans are hungry and poor. He said the current crop of leaders has failed to tame public debts and has been borrowing to consume while hoodwinking Kenyans that the debts are for developments. He said that with 63 per cent of Kenyans being poor, with the majority going to bed without food, the current regime has outdone President Kibaki, where only 38 per cent of Kenyans were poor.
“Those who are running to lead this country are not leaders. They are viruses. You cannot expect a virus to provide a solution to a problem it is causing Fagia wote,” he said.
