Theft of Public Funds: Taxpayers have lost up to Sh. 224.5 billion since the administration of President Uhuru Kenyatta took office for a second term in 2017. This is according to a report by the public prosecutor whose contents were revealed on Wednesday by The Star newspaper.
According to the report, these billions were lost through corrupt deals involving various projects and procurement activities. “The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has successfully prosecuted cases worth Sh. 3.9 billion — paltry 1.7 per cent of the money lost by June. Convictions accounted for 91.9 per cent, acquittals were 5.4 per cent and withdrawal 2.7 per cent,” the report said.
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The DPP’s report, which was handed to President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday, further shows that cases worth Sh. 157 billion were registered between January 2018 and June this year. The other Sh. 67 billion worth of cases were recorded in 2017 and before.
“Of the graft cases pending in court, 57 per cent were registered between January 2018 and June this year while 43 per cent were registered before 2018,” the report says, adding that a total of 220 cases were registered during the period under review. At least 26 of these were registered as of June 2020; 78 in 2019; and 116 in 2018.
“This (number of cases in court) was a clear illustration of the concerted efforts put by the office in collaboration with other stakeholders in the fight against graft for the three years,” DPP Haji said.
The report notes that a big chunk of the reported cases, with a monetary value of over Sh. 143 billion, were registered in 2019 alone, among them 13 which involved Sh.100 million each. “Last year’s cases were an upshot of over 600 per cent compared to the Sh. 18 billion that was registered in 2018,” the report on theft of public funds said. “There are 24 cases totaling Sh. 105 million which involve between Sh. 1 million to Sh. 9 million as well as 40 of Sh. 1.7 billion which involve between Sh. 10 million to Sh. 99 million.”