Over Ksh 3.9 Billion of Uwezo Fund Missing as NYS Buses Stall

By Virginia Mwangi / Published August 2, 2019 | 10:02 am

Kenyans seem to be in a scramble for their own resources: when the wananchi are not hating on the politicians, they are adding carcinogenic chemicals to foods to make them look more fresh to enable them make an extra coin.

Ksh 3.9 Billion of Uwezo Fund Missing

Well, in the continued spirit of greed that is devouring our nation, Uwezo Fund seems to have been taken up by ghosts. The Uwezo Fund loan records are nowhere to be seen, despite 3.9 billion shillings having been disbursed.

The 3.9 billion shillings had been set aside for soft loans, according to Auditor General Edward Ouko who revealed that there is no documentation of loans issued or even a list of groups who could have accessed the credit.

The report also reveals that a number of multiple imprests that amount to 10.1 million shillings were issued to officers even before they had surrendered the previous ones that they had taken which is illegal.

The audit report also revealed that 492, 427 shillings outstanding imprest was given to officers who had already left the fund with Mr Ouko saying recovering such amounts is almost impossible.

The auditor also questioned money spent in transport which amounts to 5.4 million spent by the fund in transport, travelling and subsistence allowance and 1.2 million shillings said to have been spent in purchasing airtime as there were no documents for the audit review.

Whether the amounts will ever be recovered remains unknown as Kenyans can only turn their eyes onto the DPP and DCI whose plates seems full with corruption cases.

Over half of the 47 counties in Kenya are faced with serious corruption cases with the likes of Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu facing arrests together with his wife and unashamedly smiling at the cameras.

The NYS scandal, what happened to that by the way? The cases stalled and it is bound to be a long time in the corridors of justice keeping in mind that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’.

Justice has been delayed so many times that the taxpayer lost hope, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji reignited that hope, that justice is getting delivered sooner than it was previously, the bail charged should, however, go higher.

NYS Scandal Returns to Haunt

Currently, the ghosts of the NYS scandal have returned to haunt as 18 out of the 27 passenger buses remain grounded.

The buses ferried commuters to Mwiki, Kawangware, South B and Kenyatta Hospital among other areas at a standard fare that was not open to fluctuation. According to Edward Ouko, the auditor general, there are only nine buses out of the original 27 in operation as the buses lacked maintenance.

The 27 buses were purchased by the NYS under its programme ‘Okoa Abiria’ to alleviate commuter crisis but now seem to have driven into crisis as they lacked maintenance.