Africa-Press – Kenya. Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah now claims that Kenya has overpaid its debt obligation by over Sh1 trillion “according to the revenue books of the government”.
The lawmaker made the claims during an interview with Spice FM on Wednesday.
“If you look at the figures, Kenya has overpaid its debt, we do not owe anybody anything. We have overpaid our debt by more than a trillion to two trillion shillings,” he said.
When challenged to explain how that’s possible, he said figures show that a comparison of Kenya’s outstanding debt and what it has been paying over the years shows that there’s an overpayment.
“When we pay they don’t subtract from what has been borrowed. They keep taking money from the exchequer purportedly to pay the debt then they don’t pay,” Omtatah claimed.
The lawmaker said there is no justification for the government to purport to want to raise more revenue via new tax proposals in the Finance Bill since it has no debt obligation.
He said the government’s accounts should be subjected to audit to establish the true picture of the country’s financial position before any measures can be taken to raise more revenue.
“We must have a public audit of the accounts of government because the records are there,” he said.
Data from the Central Bank of Kenya shows that Kenya’s debt stands at over Sh8.2 trillion.
But Omtatah said the amount, which is a result of audit reports by the Auditor General, does not paint the true picture since government accounts are audited separately.
He said there is a high possibility that the amount officially declared as paid out from the Consolidated Fund is not the amount delivered to the receiving entities.
“They are like a calculator, they behave like a calculator, not the man who made the calculator,” he said.
“So when they go to audit the Treasury, Treasury simply says we gave out ten shillings, but they don’t go the extra mile to see that what has been declared, was it received to the other end?”
“Then they will go to the other end and ask ‘how much did you receive?’ He will say they received six shillings. They will be audited for six shillings,” Omtatah said.
For More News And Analysis About Kenya Follow Africa-Press
