Interior PS Karanja Kibicho has admitted in a sworn affidavit that corruption in Kenya has grown by a massive 240 per cent over the past five years.
In the affidavit dated June 8, the PS listed a number of corruption cases that cost tax payers billions of shillings as a result of flawed procurement processes alone since the Jubilee administration took office in 2013.
The affidavit is in response to a decision by the Employment and Labour Relations court to set aside government's decision to suspend all heads of procurement and accounting units in ministries, departments, agencies and state corporations.
Read: Scandals dogging Uhuru's second term
Among the key scandals the PS singled out include the illegal purchase of land by the National Housing Corporation amounting to Sh400 million.
The other includes the purchase of a computerised conference management system at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre at a cost of 597 million.
The PS also listed the purchase of two ferries by the Kenya Ferry Services at a cost of Sh1.9 billion and the purchase of firefighting equipment for Sh75 million.
The procurement of a faulty printer at the Kenya Bureau of Standards for Sh300 million alongside the loss of a similar amount in a greenhouse project in Kirinyaga under the Youth Enterprise Fund also feature in the affidavit.
Kibicho said a further Sh58 million was lost in irregular procurement of machines and Sh65 million for the construction of a library and ICT resource centre by the NYS.
According to the PS, Sh302 million was lost in consultancy fees.
Statistics indicate that there were 3,355 corruption cases in the country before the Jubilee administration took power in March 2013.
The number has, however, risen over the years and it currently stands at 8,044 cases.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, seemingly aware of this fact, recently chose to lead the war on graft from the front.
Sources said the arrest and eventual arraignment of over 40 NYS suspects over alleged loss of Sh8 billion at NYS was triggered by a phone call from the president to DCI boss George Kinoti.
Read: Uhuru to corruption suspects: 'Your tribe won’t protect you'
On May 30, the president warned corruption suspects that they must pay for theft of public funds saying no one will hide behind their community name.
"We don’t want petty politics of using your community to defend yourself. If you are a thief you are a thief and you will be jailed," he said.
"From today, we don’t want to hear when someone steals, he starts saying that "my community or my religion is being targeted". If you stole, you stole alone, carry your own cross," a visibly agitated Uhuru said.
To this end, the government has objected court’s order to vacate the suspension of heads of procurement in the government.
It says the court if providing an avenue for corruption suspects to escape justice.
“It is therefore fair and just that the order be vacated,” Kibicho notes in his affidavit.
Read: NYS suspects denied bail, to remain in remand until end of trial
Related: Envoys laud Uhuru action on corruption, pledge support
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