Owalo promises forensic audit of Kenya’s public debt if elected president

Former ICT cabinet secretary and Presidential Aspirant Eliud Owalo says a government under his leadership would investigate how Kenya’s past loans were used, with prosecution possible where borrowed funds were found to have benefited senior officials personally.

Mr Owalo, who has declared his intention to contest the 2027 presidential election, made the pledge in an interview with TV47 as he outlined what he called an economic “third liberation” for Kenya.

He said his administration would conduct a forensic audit of all public debt and loans borrowed by the country, with the aim of establishing how the money was spent.

“If we discover that money we borrowed as a country benefited a few people in government, those people will be prosecuted,” he said.

He added that authorities would trace assets allegedly acquired using public funds and seek their recovery for the benefit of Kenyans.

The proposal puts the use of Kenya’s growing public debt at the centre of Mr Owalo’s emerging presidential campaign.

Digital government as an anti-corruption tool

Mr Owalo also said he would make digitisation a central part of his government, arguing that moving government services and procurement online could reduce opportunities for corruption while increasing revenue collection.

He said that during his tenure as cabinet secretary for ICT, the number of government services available online increased from about 350 to more than 22,000, according to his account in the interview.

He also claimed that daily government revenue collection rose from about Sh60m to Sh1bn during his time at the ministry, attributing the increase to digitalisation.

Mr Owalo said that, if elected president, he would ensure that government services are fully digitised and extend the approach to public procurement.

Under his proposed system, citizens would be able to see who had bid for government contracts, which companies had won them, the value of the contracts and how projects were being implemented.

His argument is that greater visibility over public transactions would make it harder for officials and contractors to divert public money.

‘Leadership deficit’

Mr Owalo said Kenya already had laws and institutions to deal with corruption but lacked the political will to enforce them.

He called this a “leadership deficit”, arguing that anti-corruption agencies should be allowed to investigate and prosecute cases without political interference.

He also criticised situations where government officials allegedly have interests in companies doing business with the state, describing this as a conflict of interest that he would seek to end.

From government insider to presidential challenger

Mr Owalo's political trajectory is likely to feature prominently in the 2027 campaign.

He previously worked with President William Ruto and served as his ICT cabinet secretary, having earlier been associated with Raila Odinga's political campaigns.

He rejects the suggestion that his decision to leave government was motivated by political disappointment.

Instead, he says he left because he wanted to pursue change from outside government and eventually seek the presidency.

He describes his programme as a “third liberation”, focused primarily on economic empowerment.

His proposed agenda includes reducing income tax, cutting VAT, removing digital tax, tackling corruption and stopping what he described as excessive government borrowing.

But the debt audit pledge may prove to be among his most consequential proposals.

If implemented, it would involve examining loans taken by successive governments and determining whether public borrowing was used for its intended purposes or diverted for private benefit.

Mr Owalo says those found responsible for corruption would face investigation and prosecution.

For now, those are campaign pledges rather than established government policy, and he did not set out in the interview the precise legal or institutional framework through which such a comprehensive audit would be carried out.

With Kenya's debt, taxation and public spending likely to remain major issues ahead of the 2027 election, Mr Owalo is attempting to make financial accountability and digital government central to his case for the presidency.