The International Monetary Fund has revealed that it will send officials to Kenya to investigate corruption in the country’s government.
During a press briefing on Friday, October 25, IMF African Department Director Abebe Aemro Selassie announced that the IMF has welcomed the state’s request for the Fund to lead the audit and will send officials.
“IMF has welcomed Kenya’s request for a diagnostic assessment,” Mr. Selassie stated.
“It will be sending a team out to basically see what areas of weaknesses and strengths Kenya has relative to other countries in terms of how public accounts are accounted for.”
The IMF’s move comes after the Kenyan government requested that it conduct an official review of the country’s corruption and governance issues.
“We need to take the fight against corruption a notch higher and cast away the spirit of corruption,” Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said on October 8.
“The war on corruption has taken a long time. We must ask ourselves where corruption is domiciled so that we can tackle it head-on.”
While the IMF is sending officials, it has raised concerns about the efficiency and effectiveness with which government resources are used in Kenya.
Mr Selassie challenged the Ruto-led government to increase transparency in how taxpayer money is spent in order to build Kenyans’ trust in its governance.
“I think promoting transparency, showing to what purpose government resources are being used in a much more effective way than has been the case, would help in the long run effort to generate tax revenue,” Selassie noted.
The need for an audit on Kenyan corruption arose after President William Ruto was pressured by young protesters demanding accountability.Ruto promised in July to propose changes to the relevant law to close the loopholes that undermine the fight against corruption.
Speaking of Kenya’s borrowing surge, the IMF stated that not only Kenya, but all countries, should keep their borrowing costs at a healthy level.
So, if countries are borrowing at 8, 9, 10 percent for the entirety of their debt stock, you pretty soon are going to get into debt problems because that will tend to be much higher than the growth rates that that countries have,” Mr, Selassie noted.