Opposition must take blame for loss of Sh791m at NYS

Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru with Principal Secretary Ms Mwanamaka Amani Mabruki addressing a news conference at Harambee House Nairobi on September 11, 2015. Detectives uncovered fraudulent payments to six companies to the tune of Sh791 million between December 2014 and April 2015. PHOTO | WILLIAM OERI | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• This year, an attempt was made to break into the NYS budget and pay ghosts Sh826 million.
• Results of the police inquiry show that in fact, neither the Sh665 million the CBK sought explanations over nor the Sh826 million almost committed for supplying rice, ideas and tents, was ever in any real danger.
• Detectives uncovered fraudulent payments to six companies for supply of road construction and building materials to the tune of Sh791 million between December 2014 and April this year.

By KWAMCHETSI MAKOKHA
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Were it not for the disruptive politics of Opposition leader Raila Odinga, there would be no financial scandal at the National Youth Service to speak of.

Fraudsters and swindlers are crawling all over the NYS budget like cockroaches on a kitchen table, and Cabinet secretary Anne Waiguru is the only one interrupting the party.

By whistling and blowing simultaneously, the hawk-eyed Waiguru has twice sent the money cockroaches scampering for cover.

For her troubles, she has been vilified, dragged into parliamentary committee hearings and forced to defend her reputation on national television.

Opposition leaders, rattled by the strides in development the Jubilee government is delivering through NYS, have turned to crying wolf with the sole purpose of distracting Ms Waiguru from her vigilance.

MONEY HABITS

Anyone insinuating that millions of shillings were being lost obviously has no knowledge about the habits of money.

It is not as if money wanders into a hospital with a perplexed look on its face asking for directions to the bank.

Nothing gets past State House, where the President lives and works.

That is why the presidency saw through the opposition trickery of targeting Ms Waiguru through innuendo and vendetta.

QUESTIONABLE PAYMENTS

Last year, when officials at the Central Bank of Kenya questioned payments of Sh665 million by the NYS, her officers supplied answers that produced a sated silence.

This year, an attempt was made to break into the NYS budget and pay ghosts Sh826 million.

Although it is normal for payments to be questioned, when official answers are provided, the matter must be allowed to rest.

In these two instances, Ms Waiguru did not just catch the theft attempt in progress and stop it, she called in police investigators.

The attendant opposition ruckus — complete with street demonstrations, public rallies and burning toilets — was all the distraction thieves needed to perform two new heists.

Results of the police inquiry show that in fact, neither the Sh665 million the CBK sought explanations over nor the Sh826 million almost committed for supplying rice, ideas and tents, was ever in any real danger.

SMOKESCREEN OPPOSITION

These two false frauds were only the smokescreen Opposition leaders were deftly creating for the conspiracy to defraud the NYS of Sh695 million — and then some more.

Detectives uncovered fraudulent payments to six companies for supply of road construction and building materials to the tune of Sh791 million between December 2014 and April this year.

Not rice and powdered milk, not strategies or branding and event management.

By harassing the best performing minister, smearing her name and casting aspersions on her character, the Opposition almost succeeded in creating confusion in which the 200 tenders at the NYS are not examined, thus putting it’s Sh25 billion budget at risk.

Toilets are being built, clogged drains are being cleared and youth are being put to work under the NYS programme, and it is sending the Opposition into a panic about the impending loss of support.

SMEAR CAMPAIGNS

Instead of getting with the programme and supporting these noble initiatives, Opposition leaders have resorted to cheap smear campaigns.

What a relief that instead of losing Sh665 million through unauthorised payments and another Sh836 million through password tampering on the Integrated Financial Management Information System, only Sh791 million appears to be unaccounted for.

Quick arithmetic shows Ms Waiguru’s stewardship saved the country Sh1.5 billion.

The Sh791 million paid to suppliers of building materials could similarly have been saved if the Opposition had not gone poking around, and it must take responsibility for this new loss.