Laptops cash used to pay Anglo Leasing debt

By James Anyanzwa

NAIROBI, KENYA: The National Treasury will table before Parliament a supplementary budget that it has factored into the controversial payment of Sh1.4 billion to Anglo Leasing firms.

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich yesterday said the payment to Anura Perera was effected through reallocation of funds from projects that never took off during the current financial year (2013/2014) such as the Sh53.2 billion laptop project.

Mr Rotich said the expenditure would be regularised through the second supplementary budget.

“We had to provide for that payment given that it was an essential expenditure for us to do in terms of going forward. We had to reallocate other resources from some projects which had not yet been implemented such as the laptop project and others,” Rotich told reporters in Nairobi.

He added: “We are going to regularise that expenditure in the supplementary budget 2. We have already finished supplementary budget 1. I think it was prudent for us to pay now and avoid interests and penalties of Sh260,000 per day.”

Reverse trend

Rotich however said the Government would not pay the Sh3.05 billion additional claims by Perera.

“No we are not paying any other,” he said.

Rotich was fielding questions from reporters after officially opening a Leasing Convention in Nairobi on Tuesday.

Last week, the National Treasury disregarded Parliament and went ahead to pay the Sh1.4 billion owed to two firms for Anglo Leasing-type contracts.

Acting on an email communication from the Head of the Presidential Strategic Communication Unit, Manoah Esipisu the National Treasury wired the money to Anura Perera’s agents through a NatWest Bank account in the United Kingdom under the account name Traverse Smith LLP number 00859185.

This happened after President Uhuru Kenyatta instructed the Treasury Cabinet Secretary to settle the payments. The payment has met intense resistance from the official opposition CORD and the Law Society of Kenya.