Treasury CS Ukur Yattani denies taking Sh139 billion Covid-19 loan

The National Treasury has denied a report by Business Daily that Kenya took a secret Sh139 billion Covid-19 loan.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani (pictured) has termed the article as ‘misleading and malicious’ and injurious to Treasury’s image and reputation.

“NTP wishes to categorically state, that the Treasury CS did not enter into any loan contract for EUR 1,068,932,932,543 (Sh139 billion), with Kallo Inc as claimed in the company’s filings with the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC),” the CS said in a statement.

Yattani further claims that the local daily relied on filings by Kallo Inc (a Canadian firm) with the SEC and at no point did they seek a right of reply from the Treasury which had sought more time to respond to the claim.

“The article erroneously attributed the story to the US SEC by claiming that it had disclosed the deal between the Treasury and Canadian firm Kallo Inc over the multi-billion-shilling deal to upgrade Kenya’s health infrastructure…”

Yattani claimed that there is no plausible evidence that the SEC made such a revelation to the public.

In the Thursday article, Business Daily reported that Kenya signed a secret Sh139.5 billion loan agreement with Belarusian and Canadian companies in June 2020 to build mobile clinics and upgrade county hospitals amid fears of rising coronavirus cases.

According to SEC filings: “On June 26, 2020, the company finalised contracts with the Republic of Kenya and Techno-Investment Module Limited for a project contract and a finance contract.”