Rough ride for CS Mbadi as he joins Ruto's 'skunk' and forced to defend unpopular govt policies

John Mbadi, the new Cabinet Secretary heading the Treasury ministry, is now suffering to explain the poor state of the public coffers he once boldly maligned.

Now at the centre of a dire need to revitalize Kenya's crunched economy, Mbadi's pants hate him with all the hot seats he has been on since he was appointed into the Cabinet as part of the broad-based government.

He has recently been summoned for questioning by Parliament Committees to elucidate on contentious matters including the foggy $1.85 billion (Ksh.239 billion) takeover deal of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) by Adani Airport Holdings Limited.

Despite the matter drawing intense public scrutiny and legal challenges, Mbadi told the National Assembly's Public Investment Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy on Tuesday that his department has no records linking the Indian private investor to corruption.

He echoed the same before the Senate's Transport Committee on Tuesday but faced a hostile panel after Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka introduced new evidence, presenting letters from three companies that expressed interest in the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) but were reportedly overlooked.

Onyonka contended that KAA insisted only Adani had shown interest and that their proposal was the sole one processed.

Tensions then arose between Onyonka and Mbadi as the Senator claimed that the letters had been received by KAA, while Mbadi maintained that no correspondence had been sent to the Treasury regarding any company other than Adani.

Mbadi has also met himself on the doublespeak bench after he was forced to renege on a declaration that there are no monies to employ Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.

Mbadi, after stating in an interview with Citizen TV that the exchequer had no money to employ the 20,000 teachers, retracted his statement admitting he was ill-informed on the budgetary allocation status for the JSS teachers.

This was when the ministry was embroiled in a debacle of solving salary arrears for teachers who were conducting a nationwide strike.

Not long ago, Mbadi was amongst the harshest critics of Mr Ruto's government once it took power in 2022 as he, alongside his opposition cronies, scoffed at President Ruto's cabinet team.

In October 2022, Mbadi urged Members of Parliament to reject all the nominated CSs, arguing that they were "deficient in all ways."

A bullish Mbadi added that only eight of the 24 picks were qualified to be in Cabinet while the rest were “incompetent, unqualified, have integrity issues" and could not install transformative reforms.

“We have a choice to make either decision to reject over 60 per cent of these names or give President Ruto his skunk. Let us not interfere with it. We give it to him,” Mbadi said.

Mbadi did not tone down his ridicule mission as he perennially expressed his distaste for the government's taxation appetite.

He is now part of the "skunk" and if eating a humble pie is anything to go by, he is forced to create a juggernaut of public expenditure against a thinning fiscal space and underperforming revenues.

Mbadi has vowed to stimulate the economy by leveraging technology to increase the revenue targets of the national taxman, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

He has pointed out that a state-of-the-art system will be required to seal loopholes that provide an opportunity for officials to loot money through corruption.

KRA collected Ksh.2.4 trillion in the financial year 2023/24, up from Ksh.2.16 trillion in the previous financial year. Upon assuming office, President William Ruto told KRA to work on doubling its collections to around Ksh.4 trillion every financial year to help service debts and contribute to funding government projects.

He has also asserted that he will ensure there is transparency in the budgeting process to reduce on wastage of public resources.