This archive report was first published on 13 October 2019.
Published on October 13, 2019, a report by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) revealed that Kenyans were hoarding questionable wealth in offshore tax havens across the world.
As of June this year, an estimated Sh1 trillion had been repatriated from offshore accounts by questionably wealthy Kenyans who took advantage of the government's amnesty on wealth hidden abroad.
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) stated that the repatriated money, equivalent to over a third of Kenya's annual budget, belonged to 16,000 individuals.
Under the amnesty terms, those who repatriated their money were not required to declare the source of their wealth or account for previous years' tax arrears.
Despite the repatriation of billions, the country's economy remains stagnant, with important questions left unanswered.
It is puzzling that the owners of the repatriated cash were not required to disclose how they made their wealth, especially since Kenya is not a mineral economy like the Congo.
With over Sh5 trillion hidden abroad by so-called wealthy Kenyans, questions abound as to how such money finds its way out of the country without raising red flags.
According to data to be released by the Central Bank of Kenya, few Kenyans have more than Sh100,000 in savings now than there were 13 years ago, indicating that cash flow problems have already started eating into the economy.
Furthermore, the number of account holders with more than Sh100,000 in their bank accounts decreased by 133,000 in 2018, compared to 1,583,000 in 2017, a trend that has been observed since 2006.
Meanwhile, the number of billionaires in Kenya has increased, hitting a high of 356 last year, with the country ranked number four in terms of the super-wealthy persons living in Kenya.
