NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 22 – Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has cautioned leaders against being ignorant and making misleading remarks on the financial status of the country.
Yatani who on Thursday responded to claims made by some leaders that the government was only left with Sh93 million as of August 2022, stated that the amount does not reflect the financial status of the country.
“Sometimes leaders argue out of ignorance. I sympathize with the situation because there is a lot of ignorance about it,” Yatani told Senators on Thursday during their retreat.
Treasury in a gazette notice dated September 16, 2022, disclosed that the exchequer balance for the month of August was at Sh93.6 million.
This revelation fuelled misinformation with a section of leaders alleging that President William Ruto had inherited a broke country from his predecessor former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei alleged stated that “the economy was no longer in ICU but dead.”
CS Yatani clarified that the government raises money on a daily basis and distributes it based on competing needs.
“Government does not collect money and stores in one place, keeps for one month and then distributes after one month or one year. We raise revenue on daily basis and we fund the government on daily basis,” he said.
In his presentation, Yatani however, regretted that there was a lot of wastage of resources in the counties and challenged the lawmakers to “stamp their authority” in the devolved units’ management affairs.
He noted that the auditor reports which have given some counties a clean bill of health are not reflective of the situation on the ground which he decried was worse.
“The Senate as the custodian of devolution should look at the administrative challenges at the counties and the mismanagement and corruption and the county level,” he said.
CS Yatani challenged the Senators to enact a law that would compel counties or the Treasury to stop the transfer of resources when they see there is wastage of resources at the counties.
