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| The man has more lives than the proverbial cat! |
Henry Rotich is perhaps the craftiest of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Cabinet secretaries, having weathered several
storms unscathed.
His name has featured in several financial controversies that have rocked the boat for the Jubilee administration.
From his inability to point key projects funded by the Eurobond billions, to the 2015 cash flow crisis and the National Youth Service (NYS) scam, the head of government purse has always picked his battles carefully.
The soft-spoken career economist, described in court papers as a high-flyer of the deputy president, also knows when to remain economical with the truth or to come out and face his accusers head-on
At the height of the Eurobond controversy, Mr Rotich took the unprecedented decision to invite Opposition leader Raila Odinga to his office to explain to him in person how the net proceeds of the Sh250 billion Eurobond loan was spent after repaying a syndicated loan.
Despite being the custodian of all Government assets and the man who without his signature no funds can be wired out of government accounts, he is yet to present to the public a list of the actual projects that the billions were sunk into more than half-a-year later.
Adan Harakhe, a former senior deputy director general at the NYS, sensationally entangled him in the scandal at the youth organisation after he claimed that an agent named as Ben, who was at the centre of the scam, was alleged to be Rotich’s point man.
But Rotich had denied knowing any of the companies involved and dismissed claims that Ben was his agent.
When things become too tough, the Harvard University scholar chooses to keep off.
For instance, at the height of the controversial payments of the Anglo Leasing billions, Rotich kept journalists waiting at the Treasury Buildings for more than three hours only to call off the meeting.
He may have escaped scrutiny on this front, but he may not distance himself from the gaps in managing the economy and the gaps in the budget.
Rotich stands accused of presenting impossible targets to the taxman on revenue collections to fund the ballooning budget.
His projections on the economy have also always fallen off the mark due to what Parliament terms as “a systematic overestimation of revenue”.
Parliament’s budget experts have also accused Rotich of presenting spending plans that lack evidence of sufficient public participation. They also say that his revenue projections are racing too far ahead for the economy to support.
Over the last four years, real revenue collections grew at a modest 14 per cent while technocrats at the Treasury Buildings believed that revenues would grow at 23 per cent, invariably contributing to rising fiscal deficits and borrowing.
Latest revenue statement from the Treasury shows the taxman had raised a total of Sh888 billion in tax revenue by end of April against a target of Sh1.2 trillion.
To meet the target, the taxman will be required to collect more than Sh327 billion by end of June. This is a long call under the current tax collection record.
His ministry is also expected to ensure that the youth have access a third of Government tenders, but several departments are yet to implement this directive in full.
He is also unable to come up with a bankable debt reduction strategy for the country in what has seen legislators accuse him of treating debt as a moving target.
The latest report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has termed the Government’s strategy to reduce public debt under Rotich “worrisome”.
The Government plans to borrow Sh689 billion in the new financial year to plug the deficit in the Sh2.27 trillion budget. This is more than half the amount of money KRA has been able to collect this year.
Uhuru’s government has already borrowed more in three years than what Kibaki did in his last five years in office.
This could become worse by the fact that Rotich was unable to keep the Government within the approved expenditure ceilings.
In the new budget, the national government overshot the budget ceiling by Sh139 billion, exposing the country to more debt.
Contractors under the Jubilee administration have also accused the Government of significant delays in payments after going for over six months at one point last year without pay.
The Central Bank of Kenya has come to Rotich’s aid in dealing with inflation after the new governor was left to employ only monetary policy tools to rein in inflation.
Companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange are yet to recover from the 2015 bleeding that saw them lose over Sh250 billion in their value last year, taking a direct hit from the turbulence in the economy.
But it is the servicing of the growing public debt that is the biggest headache for the soft-spoken cabinet secretary given that he has to balance between prompt repayments of the huge debt and meeting other pressing needs at home.
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