Elijah Ntongai, a journalist at TUKO.co.ke, has over four years of financial, business, and technology research and reporting experience, providing insights into Kenyan and global trends.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sent a graft audit team to Kenya.

The mission, which is already in the country, will conduct an audit of corruption and mismanagement of public finances in Kenya over the next two weeks.

"The review is part of the IMF’s commitment to helping strengthen governance and anti-corruption frameworks,” an IMF spokesperson told Bloomberg.

The findings by the IMF mission are expected to inform governance in Kenya as well as Kenya's and the IMF's arrangements going forward.

"The findings of the so-called governance diagnostic will be shared with Kenyan authorities for their input before the end of 2025, and will be published once they give their consent, according to the lender," Bloomberg reported.

In October 2024, President William Ruto’s administration formally invited the IMF to carry out a comprehensive investigation into corruption across all arms of the Kenyan government, including ministries, departments, and parastatals.

This decision was confirmed by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi during the 2024 KRA Summit, where he stated that the decision followed consultations with the president and Treasury.

"It is true that after consultations with the president of the Republic of Kenya and the Treasury, the Government of Kenya on its own volition, requested the IMF to conduct a governance and corruption diagnosis in Kenya,” Mudavadi revealed in 2024.

Mudavadi emphasised that the request was made on Kenya’s own volition; however, other reports indicated that the IMF’s involvement came after pressure from its major shareholders, who insisted on a corruption and governance review as a precondition to resume stalled funding.

The IMF had earlier suspended the disbursement of KSh 77 billion to Kenya following nationwide anti-tax and poor governance protests.

Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo explained that the IMF assessment was requested to provide an independent view of corruption vulnerabilities, and not merely to unlock funds.

Earlier, reported that Kenya had terminated its loan programme with the IMF after mutually agreeing to end the ninth review of the financing deal signed in April 2021.

The cancelled programme would have unlocked up to KSh 110.04 billion in funding, including support from the Extended Fund Facility, Extended Credit Facility, and climate financing before its expiry.

Economist Churchill Ogutu attributed the decision to Kenya’s consistent failure to meet IMF-imposed fiscal and structural reform benchmarks, such as revenue targets and policy reforms.

The IMF reported that it had received a formal request for a new funding programme from the Kenyan authorities and would engage them on the way forward.

Talks on the new funding model have not been agreed upon yet; consequently, Kenya is not expecting any IMF funding towards the 2025/26 budget despite an estimated KSh 876 billion deficit.

Notably, Kenya has turned its focus on domestic borrowing to fund the deficit.

Source: TUKO.co.ke