•Money has not been moved for over two years.
•A number of IDPs yet to be resettled.
Image: FILE
At least Sh272.6 million meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has been lying idle in the vaults of the Central Bank of Kenya and four other commercial banks.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has flagged the anomaly in a new audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, putting managers of the National Humanitarian Fund on the spot.
The concern is that the account, which has been idle for over two years, is not earning interest on the deposits. The fund was created in February 2008.
Gathungu said the situation was despite the conclusion of the disbursement of grants to IDPs under the cash payment programme.
A review of records, she said, indicated that the Fund operated four commercial bank accounts and one at the Central Bank of Kenya.
The accounts were established for the purposes of disbursing grants to Internal Displaced Persons under a cash payment programme managed by the Office of the President.
“Review of the bank statements revealed that the bank accounts have been dormant for over two years with a balance of Sh272,621,261 as of June 30, 2022,” Gathungu said.
“In the circumstances, the effective use of the fund’s resources could not be confirmed,” the auditor general said.
IDPs, especially those who were in designated camps, were compensated with amounts ranging from Sh400,000 and above, as well as land for development.
Hundreds of IDPs, however, remain uncompensated for the disruption meted on their livelihoods during the 2007 post-election violence.
Nyanza and Western IDPs have petitioned the National Assembly to help them unlock a compensation standoff with Harambee House.
The petitioners said they were neither resettled nor compensated like their counterparts who were in IDP camps in other parts of the country.
“The government’s failure to compensate the Nyanza-Western caucus of IDPs had subjected them to untold pain, suffering, and disillusionment that has made them feel forgotten and discriminated,” the petitioners stated.
They held that several trips to the Interior Ministry to address their plight have not borne any fruit and want the National Assembly to interrogate the issues to end their 15-year-long wait.
“It is our prayer that the House causes the relevant government agencies to ensure that the deserving IDPs under the Nyanza-Western caucus are verified and urgently compensated in order to enable us to revert to a dignified.”
The auditor general said the idle cash is in contravention of the Prevention, Protection, and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons and Affected Communities Act, 2012.
The law provides that the fund’s accounting officer, with the approval of the National Treasury, invest or place monies from the fund on a deposit interest-earning account.
“Any interest earned on monies so invested or deposited shall be placed to the credit of the Fund,” the law reads.
The Fund managers have also been called out for not forming a committee to make decisions on the expenditures from the kitty.
While the law spells procedures including setting up a committee and secretariat, Gathungu says there was no evidence in form of minutes to indicate that the committee deliberated on the matters of the fund.
There was no evidence the committee directed its administration in the year under review as provided for in the law.
“Further, no evidence was provided of an active secretariat as provided for in the enabling Act,” Gathungu said.
“In the circumstances, the adequacy and effectiveness or otherwise of risk management and oversight of the Fund could not be confirmed,” the auditor said.