Corruption, The Hidden Budget Line Item.
How the taxes we pay feed the belly of corruption
Budget 2024-2025
A third of Kenya’s annual budget is lost to corruption, highlighting a critical issue that affects the nation’s development.
One of the effects of the runaway corruption tracked over the years has been the ballooning of Kenya's debt, both internal and external.
When we think of corruption, we often imagine it occurring during the execution of the budget, typically through the procurement process. But reports show that corruption is many a times negotiated not from the point of payment, but at the point of the creation of the budget.
In 2023, the Controller of Budget revealed that the National Treasury over-budgeted their (controller of budget) salary by three times, and by extension salaries of other State officers, to the tune of Kshs.1 billion of taxpayers money. And in May of 2024, the Ministry of Education was implicated in a scandal involving ghost schools, where nonexistent schools received annual funding for students.
Understanding corruption from the budgeting stage allows us to develop critical questions about allocations. The Budget determines the allocation of resources for service delivery, with ministries, departments and government agencies serving as the conduits through which this service delivery is realized. By comparing budget allocations with historical corruption ministries, This project aims to foster one critical question: where does our money go?—which is crucial for holding leaders accountable and curtailing corruption.
Ministry Allocations in the 2024/2025 Budget
The National government budget for 2024/25 is set at Kshs. 3.91 trillion. The total revenue projection for the same period stands at Kshs. 3.35 trillion, with Kshs. 2.91 trillion anticipated to be collected in taxes.
Historical Corruption
Between 1978 and 2022, a total of 204 scandals were documented by the media across various ministries, departments, and agencies.
| Time | Number of Scandals | Amount Lost |
|---|---|---|
| 1978-2002 | 19 | 104.9 billion |
| 2002-2013 | 38 | 88.6 billion |
| 2013-2022 | 136 | 644 billion |
Most Corrupt Ministries 1978-2022
Overall, the most corrupt ministries by reported amounts either misappropriated or unaccounted for, are Roads and Transport, Energy and Petroleum, and Health.
Choose a ministry below to see it’s corruption history.
Most Scandalous
Here are some of the most prominent scandals between 1978 and 2022 .
Swipe left through the carousel to more scandals, or click on the scandal title to read the full story.
The Department of Immigration
failed to account for passports and visa stickers issued to consulates and Kenya’s embassies abroad.
Visa stickers worth KShs 2.7 billion, 39,900 blank passports worth KShs. 202.5 million and 13,872 printed passports were issued in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years.
From the auditor general's scrutiny, the total revenue collected of KShs. 2.9 billion differed with the KShs. 1.5 billion in the financial statements provided for scrutiny.
Racketeers at Kenya Power perfected a system where they have been overbilling customers, with some domestic users getting monthly bills as high as Sh300,000, over a period of five years
Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development
Scandal: Tax EvasionAmount Involved: Ksh. 1 trillion
A tax evasion racket said to have cost the public Sh100 billion, had rogue officials colluding with unscrupulous traders to facilitate false declarations to deny the taxman requisite taxes such as import duty. The officials also allowed in counterfeits in exchange for kickbacks.
Officials implicated were from Revenue Authority (KRA). Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) officials.
Construction never began on the two scandal-plagued projects costing about Sh65 billion. Loans were taken out and money paid but virtually nothing was done.
Despite the Kenyan government insisting the deal was above board and the projects would be implemented, close scrutiny of the project's contracts revealed a tale of how European lenders seemed to collude with State actors to craft financing schemes whose effect is to saddle the books of African governments with massive debt service.
KShs. 5.6 billion mysteriously disappeared from the eCitizen pay bill account, which was being managed by a local firm allegedly contracted to collect payments from Kenyans seeking government services.
It is alleged that the money could not be traced after the Court barred Goldrock Capital limited from operating the account that was receiving millions per day from Kenyans applying for various services.
The Ministry of Agriculture was could not explain how it procured KShs. 2.1 billion worth of subsidised fertiliser meant for smallholder farmers in 2014 as it has failed to produce documentation to support the procurement of 260,905 metric tonnes of fertiliser.
It was alleged that NHIF raised a quotation for the supply of 63 Nissan microbuses worth KSh 2.2 million each from DT Dobie and 40 Land Rovers from CMC worth KSh3.6 million each. The ministry changed the quantity to 83 and 65 respectively and a senior health official approached CMC for a KSh6.2 million bribe.
Ministry of Energy and Petroleum
Scandal: Turkwel Hydro Power Dam ProjectAmount Involved: Ksh. 300 million
The contract price, KShs, 300 million. For the 155-meter-high concrete Turkwel hydro power dam project, which, between 1986 and its completion in 1991 was "more than double the amount Kenya's Government would have had to pay for the project based on an international competitive tender.
For two-and-a-half years after completion, the dam operated at less than half its designed operating capacity and when it was officially opened by President Moi in October 1993, the reservoir was less than a quarter full.
The KShs.10 billion had been flagged as fraudulent and was part of about KShs. 50 billion paid to NHIF by Treasury as capitation premiums for medical cover for civil servants, Kenya Police Service, National Youth Service and Kenya Prisons Service since 2013.
An official at the Ministry of Education allegedly acquired over Sh2.2 million fraudulently in April 2009 and gave a false imprest of over Sh7 million in May of the same year.
The senior assistant director of education purported the money had been spent during HIV/ Aids workshops organised by the Ministry of Education in Mombasa and Machakos
Pending bills worth KShs. 6.2 billion had been cleared but still marked as pending bills.
The tendering process that brought on the bill had commenced without prior preparation and approval of the department’s procurement plan and budget.
Members who took part in the opening of the tenders were also part of the evaluation. Notification of intention to enter into contracts with successful tenderers was done by the head of procurement and not the accounting officers as required by the procurement law.
Ministry of Health
Scandal: County Managed Equipment Services programmeAmount Involved: Ksh. 63 billion
Top officials in the Ministry of Health negotiated and executed a deal with suppliers to lease equipment to counties.
Money was spent leasing mattresses, baby cots, basins, microwave ovens as well as razor blades in a controversial medical equipment leasing scheme imposed on counties.
The list of products that were leased to health facilities in the counties with some items such as syringes, bedside lockers, refrigerators, electric kettles, trolleys, stethoscopes, drip stands and other items that ordinarily ought to have been purchased by the counties or the Ministry of Health.
Ministry of Lands
Scandal: Discrepancies and Inaccuracies’ in Financial StatementsAmount Involved: Ksh. 20 billion
The Lands ministry failed to account for KShs. 20 billion in 2017-18.
Report from the Auditor General cited ‘glaring discrepancies and inaccuracies’ in the ministry’s financial statements, undisclosed pending bills and unexplained compensation of employees, among other accounting issues.
Ministry of Treasury
Scandal: Misappropriation of Funds from National Youth Service Account (NYS II)Amount Involved: Ksh. 10.5 billion
The KSh10.5 billion scandal involved at least 48 individuals drawn from senior management at NYS and National Treasury, as well as suppliers. The money is alleged to have been paid to ghost suppliers.
Ministry of Labour and Social Protection
Scandal: Irregular Payments by Pension Schemes to Fake PensionersAmount Involved: Ksh. 67.9 billion
The government lost at least KShs. 67.9 billion in irregular payments by pension schemes to undeserving claimants. Individuals at the Treasury may have used weaknesses in the Pensions Management Information System (PMIS) to irregularly authorise the payments.
Ministry of Labour and Social Protection
Scandal: Irregular Purchase of IDP MaterialAmount Involved: Ksh. 22 million
Fraudulent payment for services not adequately rendered. Ministry officials had been involved in procurement of building hardware that were to be used in IDP (Internally displaced Persons’ camps).