Britain asks Kenya to pay back $80m ‘stolen’ UPE money
By Our Online Team
20th June 2011: The British government is putting pressure on the Kenyan government to refund all the aid money Britain gave Kenya to support Universal Primary Education [UPE] amid concerns that a lot of the aid money was stolen by corrupt government officials.
The revelation came as British High Commissioner to Kenya Mr. Rob Macaire visited the Africa Sports and Talents Empowerment Programme offices in Eldoret – Western Kenya. The Britain wants Kenya to tackle alleged corruption in the Ministry of Education before it could resume supporting Free Primary Education.
Britain is demanding a refund of $80 million (Sh7 billion) aid to Kenya’s free education programme following revelations of massive corruption. “…The UK Government will push the Government of Kenya hard for return of the UK’s share of lost funds”, the Department for International Development (DFID) said in a statement.
During an interview in Nairobi, DFID deputy head Mike Harrison said the money once repaid will be ploughed back to fund education in Kenya, but through non-state channels. “…We are insisting that besides the government instituting radical reforms in the Ministry of Education, our proportion of the pool fund must be returned”, Mr Harrison said.
The DFID last year hired an independent consultant who worked with Ministry of Finance to audit the Kenya Education Sector Support Programme (KESSP). The audit was completed last December, but the findings revealed only on Monday this week by Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, accompanied by Education minister Sam Ongeri.
The report showed that $52 million (Sh4.6 billion) could not be accounted for as Ministry of Education officials involved themselves in brazen embezzlement of the funds. Mr Kenyatta’s statement provoked a flurry of accusations and counter-accusations, with Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission boss P.L.O. Lumumba accusing the Finance minister of putting on a show to impress some visiting World Bank officials.
Prof Lumumba denied suggestions by Mr Kenyatta that the anti-graft agency had been lax, and called on Education minister Sam Ongeri to take responsibility for the fraud. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
