A section of Kenya Kwanza politicians has accused former President Uhuru Kenyatta of leaving Kenya’s economy in a “dilapidated” situation with absolute nothing at the National Treasury.
During his inaugural speech, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua took a jibe at the Jubilee administration for leaving the Treasury coffers with nothing.
“We have talked to the Treasury, and the coffers are empty. We will have to start from scratch,” he stated.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei of Kenya Kwanza coalition had claimed they found only Ksh.93 million at the Treasury.
“The economy is no longer in ICU But Death because H.E Ruto found only Ksh.93.7M at the treasury, Uhuru went home with everything. State Capture is REAL !
The country is broke Kenyans be patient H.E Ruto shall fix this through economic transformation and Prayers from all of us. Amen,” he wrote in his Twitter page.
Despite their claims, however, the Kenya Kwanza coalition chaired by President William Ruto has already disbursed Ksh.3.5 billion for fertiliser subsidy in the regions that are anticipating rainfall in coming days.
The subsidy fund is part of the President’s first order when he assumed power on September 13, as he banks on agriculture to fight the ever rising cost of food.
The politicians outcry does not mirror the Treasury records which indicates the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) collected Ksh.149.6 billion in taxes in August 2022, an 19.4 percent increase compared to Ksh.125.3 billion posted same period last year.
Appearing before Senators for their induction in Naivasha Thursday, the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani called out politicians for misleading the public, terming them “ignorant.”
“Sometimes we argue out of ignorance. I really don’t know whether to sympathise with the situation because there is really a lot of ignorance about it,” Yatani said.
Can government go broke?
Even though he remained scanty on whether the state can run entirely broke on any given day, Yatani said revenue collected is spent spot on.
“We raise revenue on daily basis and we fund the government on daily basis and there are competing needs.”
He said the state fails to hit its revenue collection targets sometimes leading to delayed disbursement of cash to some entities.
“So, how do you now determine what goes to the counties and what goes elsewhere? The low performance of revenue raised nationally impacts on our disbursement not only to the counties but also to the rest of government.”
In the current fiscal year, KRA has a collection target of Ksh.2.07 trillion to help fund Kenya’s Ksh.3.3 trillion budget, leaving the National Treasury with a total of Ksh.850 billion fiscal deficit which will be financed through a mixed of domestic and foreign borrowing.
