Sh9b, only a typo away

By Kipkirui K’Telwa

Did Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta read a Supplementary Budget with "typo’ errors amounting to Sh9.2 billion last week? This is the question that many people have been asking since last week.

Attempts by Uhuru to explain away Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara over the matter has not worked. But after two days, Treasury officials, have discovered it was only a printing error in the Supplementary Budget.

They maintained, luckily, that spending figures had not been tampered with. Instead, Treasury mandarins said the Sh9.2 billion ‘discrepancy’ is the difference between the actual spending estimates and the value of the recently changed spending items.

It is not the first time Kenyans are getting ‘smart’ explanations from the political elite. During the height of the multi-billion shillings Anglo Leasing scandal, an influential Cabinet minister explained it as ‘a scandal that never was’.

Perhaps Anglo Leasing was an IT error of some sort, however costly.

It did not matter to the minister then that a ‘ghost’ had wired back to the Treasury part of the money paid out. And typical of Kenyans, it would soon be forgotten. And soon enough, indeed.

The maize and Triton Oil scandals that followed Anglo Leasing several years later were explained away. It did not matter that Kenyans were dying due to biting food shortage or long queues were forming for hyper-inflated fuel.

It appears that Kenyan leadership and corruption are inseparable twins. Like a child with long hands when caught dipping their thieving hands into the sugar jar, they say they were only checking the level of the white crystals.

But Kenyans should not worry. Top Treasury PS Joseph Kinyua and Uhuru have constituted a committee to probe the IT problem that has sparked off a furore.

No need of getting worked up. The committee will find out whether the error was a technical hitch or the mischievous work of "persons opposed to Uhuru’s presidential ambitions".

Off the cuff, one might say Sh9.2 billion is only a typo away. Whether that’s fraud or not is for a committee to find out.