How Chinese firm walked away with Sh1.4b without breaking a sweat

A Geothermal development Company steam well in Menengai, Nakuru County.

In yet another brazen act of disdain for the Kenyan taxpayer, a foreign contractor has pocketed Sh1.4 billion advance payment and left a parastatal in the energy sector high and dry, gasping for breath.

It is a familiar story; contractor plucked from faraway lands, signs up an externally funded multi-billion shilling project, painfully obtains an advance payment guarantee from a bank, gets paid a quarter of contract price, bizarrely recalls the guarantee, delays to mobilise for works, contract expires and taxpayer is left with a festering fiscal wound.