Ministry in a spot over loans

Nairobi — The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) is on the spot over Sh12 billion in loans taken from the governments of Italy and China to develop key infrastructure projects. Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said the ministry had failed to provide proper documents for the loans that were later paid to Chinese technology firm Huawei and Italian infrastructure firm Impresa Costruzioni Maltauro (ICM).

“The payments made comprised of borrowings totalling Sh2.6 billion for data centre at Konza Technopolis, an amount of Sh608 million from China for National Optic Fibre Backbone project and a total of Sh9.2 billion for Konza Technocity,” Gathungu said in the audit report for the financial year ended June 2021. —