Politics
MPs Set Up Uhuru Successor For Sh122bn Road Bond On Arrears
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s successor will be forced to float a bond to pay off runaway arrears to road contractors and suppliers, according to a parliamentary report.
The plan for a road bond will likely put the country on a collision course with the International Monetary Fund which last year thwarted a similar plan to raise funds for the development and repair of the network.
The National Assembly’s Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing in a report on expenditure estimates for the year starting July suggests the bills for Infrastructure Department have reached levels which cannot be offset through annual budgetary allocation.
“The committee recommends that the roads bond is floated within the first quarter of the financial year 2022/23 to address the problem of spiralling pending bills (for Infrastructure department),” the committee, headed by David Pkosing, wrote in the budgetary report before the House adjourned indefinitely ahead of the August 9 polls.
Pending bills for the State Department of Infrastructure — which is primarily in charge of roads and bridges — hit Sh121.56 billion last March, nearly three times Sh40.93 billion levels in June 2020.
In the first nine months of this financial year ending June 30, the department accumulated Sh33.25 billion more arrears compared with Sh88.31 billion at the end of the last financial year.
Road infrastructure has been one of the priority projects under President Kenyatta’s administration, but this has come with the burden of debt load on taxpayers largely through loans contracted from China.
Mr Kenyatta says his administration has built more than 11,000 kilometres of tarmac roads since taking power in April 2013, claiming the additional network is nearly six times that built by his three predecessors since independence.
SOURCE: BUSINESS DAILY
Deputy President William Ruto has vowed to that his government if given the mandate to lead the country in the August 9 polls will deal with hands-on with ‘State capture.’
According to the Presidential candidate, state policies are being used to facilitate the theft of public funds as corruption had been absorbed into government.
DP William Ruto made these calims while speaking to the Reuters in an interview.
“We have no intention of prosecuting President Uhuru Kenyatta, but we have every intention of dealing with State capture. It cannot be business as usual,” the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) presidential candidate said.
DP Ruto’s running mate, Rigathi Gachagua also alluded to said State capture, saying those involved will be dealt with should Kenya Kwanza form the next government.
“We will not go after individuals. We will go after all those in state capture and conflict of interest,” Gachagua said in a joint media broadcast.
The Mathira MP vaguely explained that it was “people in power who have used or are using their offices to use up public resources to their advantage,” when asked who or what State capture was.
The DP has also revealed plans of bringing to end the Kenya’s national debt, which currently stands at Sh9 trillion, in an exclusive interview with international media.
He said the country has the capacity to handle the debt situation, and that they as Kenya Kwanza have mapped out plans of how to go about it, should they win.
“We will put the brakes on more borrowing. It may not come to zero but we will begin the journey to slow down on more borrowing,” the DP said.
Campaigns hit fever pitch and candidates scramble for airtime to sell their agendas with just eighteen (18) days left as Kenya will soon be headed to the General Election.
Sonko has increased the intense in the race for Mombasa county which already has aspirants from the UDA and ODM parties.
Sonko has finally been cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to contest for the Mombasa gubernatorial seat.
On Thursday, July 14 2022, Sonko in the accompany of his supporters was given the green light.
The former Nairobi governor was invited by the IEBC to submit his letter for clearance as per a letter addressed to him earlier.
“The venue will be the IEBC Mombasa County offices and you are expected to submit your papers on July 14, 2022 between 2pm and 4pm,” Swalha Ibrahim the returning officer said.
The letter to Sonko came after a high court ruled that the politician doesn’t be disqualified from vying for governor noting that the governor was eligible to run for office. The commission said it could not head to the courts to appeal the decision as time could not allow.
Addressing the media after the clearance, Sonko said his candidature seeks to solve the problems of the people in the Coastal city and that he was bringing a new awakening in the city.
Sonko said he was not worried about the short time time line he has to undertake the campaigns in the large city noting that he was drawing a campaign schedule to begin immediately.
“We must campaign, we have few days but we will utilize them properly. We can do two days per constituency or a day per constituency,” Sonko noted.
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