BFF-73 Kenya’s president vows to recover stolen millions

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Kenya’s president vows to recover stolen millions

NAIROBI, May 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Kenyan President vowed Wednesday that
some $80 million (70 million euros) stolen from the national youth agency in
the country’s latest corruption scandal would be recovered.

“We shall recover all the stolen money. There will be no mercy for the
thieves. Their days are numbered. They will be prosecuted and jailed,” he
said in a statement.

On Tuesday 24 of 54 suspects were hit with a raft of fraud charges,
including the director of the National Youth Service (NYS), Richard Ndubai,
and the principal secretary in the youth ministry, Lilian Omollo.

All pleaded not guilty at a court in Nairobi.

The scandal involves the alleged fraudulent payment of millions of dollars
for goods and services, often non-existent.

The scale of the theft has angered many even in corruption-weary Kenya,
where massive amounts of money regularly disappear with total impunity, and
most citizens merely shrug it off.

The NYS is a paramilitary training institution that has been at the
forefront of Kenyatta’s plan to combat high youth unemployment.

Enrolment is voluntary, and sees youths receive a stipend while receiving
technical training and working on government projects.

In one example of the corruption, Kenyan media have reported how the NYS
paid $10 million for beef in one year — meaning each recruit would have had
to consume 66 kilos (145 pounds) of beef a day.

A joint statement from 18 foreign diplomats, including the ambassadors for
the United Stated, United Kingdom, Germany, European Union, Australia and
Canada, welcomed the swift charging of officials over the scandal.

“Corruption has long undermined Kenya’s prosperity, security, and
democracy. It is, quite simply, theft from the Kenyan people. We urge that
Kenya’s judiciary take swift action, consistent with the rule of law, to
ensure fair trials and justice,” read the statement.

However numerous commentators have raised concerns that small fish were
being sacrificed in the probe, with the youth minister in charge of the NYS
at the time of the plunder going unscathed, as well other top officials,
company directors and bank managers.

The Daily Nation recalled Tuesday that in a previous scandal at the NYS in
2015, when $7 million was stolen through inflated pricing and fictitious
payments, all suspects were freed for lack of evidence in March this year.

In an editorial the paper called for the halt of “corruption mania” and
said there “must absolutely be no sacred cows.”

The ruling “Jubilee has a rotten record of enforcing integrity in public
office. Arrests are made, charges are brought, games are played and the
corrupt go scot-free.”

BSS/AFP/FI/ 1940 hrs