Someone asked a question during a live TV interview that is still ringing bells to my head. “What is the difference between thieves during the Moi era and the current breed of thieves?
The person went ahead to explain that the thieves during the reign of President Daniel Toroitich Moi were ‘good’ thieves. He says they were good thieves because they used to steal from the system and invest back into the economy. They could steal millions, set up industries, schools and employ people around the country. How the country misses those thieves?
The current government has a new crop of vicious, dangerous, and selfish thieves. The current thieves do not steal millions. Millions are too little. They steal in terms of billions. The problem is, they do not steal to invest but they steal to make themselves ‘rich.’ They steal to buy big and expensive cars, helicopters, and private jets. They steal so that they can ‘look’ as kings and queens among the poor. They steal from us so that we can worship them and ask for remnants from them.
They do not even steal and bank in local banks. No. Local banks have become too small for them and can no longer handle their billions. They now bank with foreign banks that operate outside the country. They make sure that the money they steal benefits them and only them. Nobody else.
National Bureau of Economic Research has now revealed that Kenya’s super-rich is holding more than 15 trillion shillings in offshore accounts across the world. How much again? 15 trillion shillings. Kenya’s public debt is 5 trillion shillings and the government is almost broke but the looters, shameless thieves who have looted from us are hiding 15 trillion shillings in other countries.
From the stats contained in the report, it simply means that the money held in offshore accounts by ‘wealthy Kenyans’ is five times the 2018/2019 Kenya’s national budget that was set at 3 trillion shillings. The sad thing is that the 15 trillion shillings hidden outside the country are just part of what can be traced. This means that the amount is far much higher than that.
Currently, the government is choking Kenyans with taxes for it to remain afloat. The truth is, we are not paying for the government to operate but we are paying for the rich to survive. Our work is to pay taxes. There is to loot. Period.
