Busia Senator Okiya Omatatah will prosecute President William Ruto and his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, if elected president in 2027.
Speaking during TV47’s Daily Report show on Monday, May 26 night, Senator Omtatah accused Uhuru and Ruto of singlehandedly orchestrating Kenya’s national debt crisis during the Jubilee administration.
Kenya was under the tutelage of Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto between 2013-2022, with Senator Omtatah highlighting this period as to when the duo in charge allegedly illegally borrowed money that did not help the Kenyan economy.
“If I am president, I will prosecute them (Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto). Figures don’t lie. We have evidence that money was borrowed, we have evidence this money did not go into the consolidated fund. We want to know where the money went. Money was borrowed and never brought into Kenya’s economy, these money is out there. What was factored into our economy is the debt,” Omtatah, who has since declared that he will be vying for presidency in 2027, said during the heated debate on TV47.
Kenya’s public debt as of July 2024 stood at roughly KSh10.6 trillion, according to statista. Senator Omtatah maintains that Uhuru, and now Ruto, engaged in a borrowing spree without following proper procedures as outlined in the constitution.
“In the two years that Ruto has been the President, he has added about KSh3 trillion to the national debt. When Mwai Kibaki left office, he left it at KSh2.7 trillion. These people [Uhuru and Ruto] have added on about KSh10 trillion, the real amount of debt that we have is about KSh13.7 trillion. So these people have added about KSh12 trillion, over a period of 12 years. When you go back to history, we have had minimal borrowing over the years, and then they introduced a new thing- commercial loans. Most of the money borrowed we don’t see them in the economy.”
And even after borrowing, Omatatah claims that these monies were not channeled into the country’s economy for people-centric projects.
“The money borrowed by UhuRuto went into no project. There is a clear procedure for borrowing in the Constitution. These people went and borrowed money that was never approved by Parliament. They cannot even show which project the money went into. Like the 7 billion US dollars Eurobond, the can’t show where a single coin went,” Omtatah claimed.
He added: “We are not going to punish people in Mathira to pay loans that somebody borrowed to buy a building in Dubai, or invest in the stock market in New York.”
By
Michael Majanga
