Top 13 Corruption Scandals Under the Jubilee Government

By Juma / Published November 4, 2016 | 8:22 am

The Jubilee Government has been in power for four years now. The next general elections are approaching fast. It is now less than a year before Kenyans go back to the ballot to exercise their democratic right in electing their political leaders.

As months melt into days, days into hours and hours into seconds towards the next general elections, the government of the day has been put on the spotlight due to the rampant runaway corruption that seems to be the order of the day in the system.

There is massive looting going on within and without the Jubilee Government with little being done by the same government to save the taxpayers hard-earned money from going down the hungry throats of corrupt officials.

What has been troubling many Kenyans is the deafening silence of the Head of State, President Uhuru Kenyatta, on the matter. I should defend him though. He recently talked about the issue in what the young people will call kufungua roho and all he could say was that if there was one thing that was frustrating him was corruption and shocked some of those who had the eyes to see when he asked, what do you want me to do?

At one time, the Head of Stae declared corruptption as a threat to the National Security. The dclaration only seemed to have motivated a new crop of thieves as well as encouraging the existing ones to steal more. This article looks into 13 corruption scandals that have rocked the Jubilee adminstration in just a period of four years of them being in power. The article is not in any way against the government or on the side of the opposition but it is the watchdog of the common mwananchi.

The Eurobond Scandal

Kenya borrowed more than 250 billion shillings as Eurobond. The money was meant to fund various developmental projects in Kenya especially infrastructure. When the money was acquired, the International Monetary Fund confirmed that the money was deposited on the Central Bank of Kenya account. However, the opposition in Kenya, led by the Right Honorable Raila Odinga said that more than 100 billion shillings from the Eurobond billions had been misappropriated. What followed was a series of counter accusations between the opposition and the government concerning the issue. The Treasury issued a series of conflicting statements on how the billions had been spent and at one point, said that there were no clear records of the projects that had been funded by Eurobond. The dust has since settled and the matter is slowly fading away from the minds of Kenyans who as always, react as a volcano to an issue and forget thereafter. They are like warthogs.

Laptop Tendering Scandal

When the Jubilee administration was campaigning to be elected into office, one of the distinct feature in their manifesto was the issuance of laptops to all standard one pupils in the country. The government was elected into office and now it was time to deliver on the promises. The laptop project was placed under the Ministry of Education, then under Professor Jacob Kaimenyi, to ensure that pupils received the laptops. Crafty people within the government had already seen a chance to make a kill for the money through tenders. Parliament had allocated 53 billion shillings to the projected. The tender that had been given to Olive Technologies, that was later found to have no financial capacity to deliver the laptops was rejected by the court. Where the money went is still a riddle.

Standard Gauge Tendering Scandal

This was one of the largest ever infrastructural project undertaken by the Jubilee administration though it had been planned and initiated under the Coalition government. The railway was to be built in conjunction with the Ethiopian government which pulled out citing costing issues. Thieves within and without the government already started their looting expedition. Prices were inflated for the benefits of the few and efforts of Nandi Hills legislator Alfred Keter to raise the alarm were thwarted by sycophancy. At one point, the Attorney General Githu Muigai raided serious integrity questions about how the total cost of building the railways mysteriously rose from 220,921,502,221.08 shillings that had been initially quoted by China Road and Bridge Corporation to 1.3 trillion shillings. No one knows what happened afterwards. Sycophancy could not allow us to move any further. As usual, with our warthog-like brains, we forgot everything.

The National Youth Service Scandal

Who doesn’t know about the famous NYS scandal? The scandal has become like tragicomedy, moving from one episode to another. It is believed that millions of taxpayers’ money was looted at the National Youth Service. More than 791 million shillings is said to have been looted from the NYS but the Auditor General says more than the said amount may have been looted. A lady by the name Josephine Kabura who owns 20 imaginary companies was paid more than 1.6 billion shillings for materials she never delivered to the NYS. The matter is still under probe but nothing may come out of it. Why? Because this is Kenya.

Other mega scandals are as shown below:

475 billion shillings may have been lost during the Irregular Lamu Coal project award where a company that did not submit a proposal was awarded.
10 billion shillings may have been lost during the GDC tendering scandal.
55.6 billion shillings is said to have gone down the drain during the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport New Terminal in an irregular tendering through Kenya Airports Authority.
There is the 50-million-shilling Chicken gate IEBC scandal. The directors in the United Kingdom who took part in the scandal were jailed. Those from Kenya are still enjoying the money.
The infamous Weston Hotel primary school land grab where primary school kids were bombed with teargas from the police. The private developer is yet to be unearthed.
The 8-billion-shilling Karen Land saga that involved 40 Members of Parliament. The matter has since died.
The 15-billion-shilling of the CCTV Single sourced to Safaricom.
The 1.3-billion-shilling irregular drug haul ship explosion. Some say the ship was empty. No prove though.
Do you remember the 100-million-shilling hustlers jet?

About Juma

Juma is an enthusiastic journalist who believes that journalism has power to change the world either negatively or positively depending on how one uses it.(020) 528 0222 or Email: info@sokodirectory.com

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