[FONT=georgia] Finance Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich caused a stir when he reportedly declared the government broke.
Rotich made the pronouncement in Parliament, when he gave notice that he would be presenting an austerity supplementary budget to plug a Ksh. 84 billion hole in the government’s finances. A day later, he retracted— with good reason. When Simeon Nyachae did so 20 years ago, he was promptly demoted to the Ministry of Industry. He declined the job and left government.
The pronouncement came hot on the heels of Mr. Rotich’s gallant return from the City of London waving a fistful of dollars, two billion of them, which he proclaimed a ringing endorsement of Jubilee’s economic stewardship, an emphatic vote of confidence in our economy by the global financial markets.
Two questions arise. First, if you’ve just raised 10 percent of your budget in one fell swoop, you ought to be flush with cash. Second, economic growth as brisk as projected should swell the public coffers. And growth prospects ought to be strong. We know the Jubilee government has borrowed upwards of two trillion shillings in its first term, doubling our public debt in the process. This is a huge amount of money— about three times the GDP of Rwanda. The economic benefits of the SGR and the other infrastructure projects that this money has financed should be kicking in now. Jubilee’s economic math does not add up. Where has the money gone?[/FONT]
[FONT=georgia] https://theeastafricanreview.info/op-eds/2018/03/31/highway-robbery-and-sex-toys-plunder-by-the-numbers/ [/FONT]