Account for Eurobond and reduce debt, State told

Raila Odinga with a section of CORD leaders

MERU: Opposition leader Raila Odinga has once gain turned the heat on the government over the Eurobond cash and ballooning public debt. 

Raila also faulted the government over a Sh36billion project in which medical equipment was leased to counties, and said this equipment was forced on counties against their will.

Demanding a full disclosure on the Eurobond funds, he called on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to probe the matter further, saying he knows the exact amount of money that was lost. Raila criticised  Central Bank of Kenya  Governor Patrick Njoroge for not giving prominence to the issue.

“The CBK governor wrote back to me declining my request. I directed specific questions to him, which I needed answers for,” he said.

“Records by the National Treasury are not consistent. Despite claiming that money came, we are unable to trace them,” Raila said.

The CORD leader said National Treasury CS Henry Rotich has been giving all manner of excuses to try and justify the use of the funds.

“The CS promised to table a list of the projects funded by the Eurobond money only to publish in the ministry’s website a fortnight ago that it had been used to clear debts of the Grand Coalition government,” the Opposition leader noted.

Water Minister Eugene Wamalwa, however, faulted Raila on the
Eurobond  and said  he had declined  to attend a meeting after an invitation  by National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich under
whose docket Central Bank falls.

Addressing participants at the Devolution Conference in Meru yesterday, Raila questioned the Sh36 billion Medical Equipment Service (MES), which he said had put governors at loggerheads with the national government.

He sympathised with the county bosses, whom he insisted were set up against the public for rejecting the leasing arrangement but had to bow to pressure and sign for them.

The Opposition leader argued that counties were being used as conduits by the national government for corruption as each would pay Sh96 million for seven years as payment for the equipment.

“Each county will contribute Sh665million in seven years towards the leasing of equipment. This is a serious scandal, a forensic audit should be done to determine if there is value for money,” he urged.

He took issue with the rapidly increasing public debt, which he says stands at 20 per cent of the GDP. Raila cautioned that if the country does not control its borrowing, which stands at Sh433 billion, there will be no money for development in five years. Raila also questioned the whereabouts of funds set aside by the government for the El Nino rains. “Was this money used? Where is it? We need to know where the funds went,” he said.

The CORD leader also criticised governors over corruption and wastage of public resources.