This archive report was first published on 24 July 2019.
On July 23, 2019, Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich and 26 other officials were charged with 24 counts of corruption, including abuse of office and conspiracy to commit an economic crime.
The charges relate to the Sh63 billion Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal, in which billions of shillings in cash were released to an Italian contractor, CMC di Ravena, before designs of the dams had been approved.
Rotich, who was released on a Sh15 million cash bail, had taken over as Kenya's 14th finance chief in 2013, inheriting a budget of Sh1.65 trillion. He doubled the budget to Sh3.01 trillion by June 2019, pushing the public debt level to Sh5.42 trillion, equivalent to 57 percent of the gross domestic product.
According to Robert Shaw, a public policy and economic analyst, Rotich's inability to keep a lid on spending amid perennial revenue shortfalls and the rapid growth in public debt has been a major concern.
Shaw noted that while Rotich has been a fairly steady hand in his tenure, he has not done enough to address structural defects in the country's economy that have prevented the dividends of growth from spreading to all.
Deepak Dave, a risk management expert, said that whether Rotich's debt-fuelled infrastructural expansion has built a legacy or created a burden remains too much in the balance.
