Photo|FILE
Clinix Healthcare Ltd Chief Executive officer Toddy Madahana (left) and
chairman Jayesh Saini before the Parliamentary Committee investigating
the NHIF scandal on May 15, 2012.
By MUGUMO MUNENE mmunene@ke.nationmedia.com
Anti-corruption campaigners have expressed fears that theft of public money may escalate as the country gears up for elections.
The raging corruption scandals in parastatals such as the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) have rekindled fears that politicians in power may start looting public coffers ahead of the General Election.
Researchers say politicians spent over Sh4.8
billion in the 2007 campaigns, a quarter of which is believed to have
come from government coffers.
The Centre for Democracy and Governance estimates
that over Sh1 billion was raised through pyramid schemes. CDG
researchers say they found evidence that some of the money found its way
to campaign kitties.
“For those incumbent in public office, additional
income came from unpaid use of the provincial administration machinery,
coercion to extort money from private businesses, use of state media and
state corporation advertisements to propagate partisan information, use
of government premises for party meetings, involving senior public
officers in presidential campaign planning, use of government resources
to produce material for campaigns and fuelling private vehicles using
funds from government.
“These latter activities are estimated to have amounted to Sh500 million,” the researchers said of the 2007 elections.
According to an expenditure monitoring and income
tracking survey conducted by the NGO, about Sh1 billion may have been
spent in the use of state resources such as state media, vehicles and
the Government Printer.
To unduly pressure
Former Cabinent minister Mukhisa Kituyi says he
sees ominous signs of theft of public money. Dr Kituyi says he was once
approached by a certain individual when he was in Cabinet in 2007 and
asked to unduly pressure French cement maker Lafarge out of East African
Portland Cement. (READ: State must come clean on its pressure on Lafarge)
Lafarge holds a large stake in Portland, a state
corporation, and the threat was supposed to “make them talk” – couched
language for issuing a bribe in order to be left alone.
Dr Kituyi is now warning that the same forces are on the loose with the same intentions and, again, in an election year.
“I feel a sense of déjà vu. The latest
posturing comes at a time when questionable deals at NHIF, bulk
petroleum importation, the possible sale of New KCC are raising the
spectre of raiding public coffers for campaign funds,” Dr Kituyi says.
“All prefects and whistle blowers should now get on heightened alert.”
Anti-corruption crusader Mwalimu Mati says there
is a connection between scandals and an election year. “There is no
doubt. All those incidents are related because of politics based on vote
buying.
“The incumbent want to buy their way back into
power. During election years, we have discovered that accounts of
government go into shambles. There’s definitely a connection,” Mr Mati
said.
“If Kenyans were to vote with their heads and not
their stomachs, it would be different. If you sell your vote, you sell
your government. If we had the moral fibre, it would be different.
“The major spending has got to be recouped
somehow. Political party financing may make a difference. It’s not an
all-hope-gone situation but we are trying to change a political culture
that has gained root over the last 50 years,” Mr Mati told the Sunday Nation.
Parliament is trying to find out what happened at
NHIF as the public health insurer rolled out a multi-billion-shilling
scheme covering civil servants but which is embroiled in controversy.
The claims of fraud at NHIF came hot on the heels
of a scandal at the NSSF where the state pension fund is paying for
Kanu-era contracts.
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