Why Kenyans take upon themselves to audit state projects

Lawyer Morara Kebasa has been touring the country to check progress of projects launched by state officials. [@MoraraKebasoSnr, X]

If you had any doubt about how political leaders take Kenyans for fools, then you need to quickly find one Morara Kebaso’s X account.

For weeks now, the young lawyer, quickly gaining popularity in that X space, has made an effort to go to the ground and audit several projects apparently being launched and has come back with damning reports.

It must first be clear that not every failed project can be attributed to the Kenya Kwanza government, which has only been in office for two years. However, it also happens that current President William Ruto was even more active in launching several of these projects when he served as DP under retired President Uhuru Kenyatta.

With video evidence, Morara has proved that all that remains after successful project launches are beautiful plaques with the name of whoever does the launching.

In a sample of videos shared on social media, Morara has revealed that the Olkejuado University launched over six years ago has never seen the light of day. In 2023, President William Ruto also launched the Captain-Ndemi/Wanjohi, Kwa Matu-Geka, and onwards to Muiri Primary School.

Mr Morara went there recently, and your guess is as good as mine. What is more surprising is that nearly all those projects may have been approved at the funding level, sometimes in more than one budget cycle.

It should be common sense that a person in the rank of a president or even a deputy president would not touch on a project whose funding is likely to be in question, and if so, he still has power to pursue those funds. The big question is, where do these funds go?

Morara‘s quest, birthed out of the Gen-Z protests, is also birthing a new wave of citizen consciousness that must be embraced and rode on. It is encouraging that young people now find time to scrutinise even county budgets and reports, and the discoveries are saddening.

The reality on the ground tells a completely different story from what is on paper. We may have wanted to accuse the office of the Auditor General, but this office never gets the required support. Earlier in the year, the office had its budget slashed by over Sh200 million.

However, even then, it has managed to flag a number of irregular expenditures at various levels of governance. The failure is in what happens thereafter.

There seems not to be a clear process where perpetrators can take individual responsibility for funds meant for unimplemented projects. It gets messier when senior political leaders are involved.

Nonetheless, it is not all lost; besides Morara and company, something else has been done. In June, a group of tech-savvy Kenyans launched a website that tracks every promise made by the Kenya Kwanza government.

The website is called dexxe.notion.site. The hope is that a combination of all these efforts would result in a more conscious electorate and then more responsible leaders.