Kenya to Direct Government Asset Sale Proceeds to Infrastructure Fund

Deputy President Kithure Kindiki said proceeds from the sale of government assets will be placed in the National Infrastructure Fund and used only for capital projects. The fund is managed by an independent board, Kindiki stated after the government completed the sale of its 15 percent stake in Safaricom to South Africa's Vodacom for more than Sh200 billion.

"The money will go to the National Infrastructure Fund, which is managed by an independent board, to build roads, to build dams, to build railways and to build airports," he said.

Kindiki said earlier sales of Safaricom and Kenya Airways shares could not be traced because the proceeds financed salaries, vehicles and other recurrent spending. "We cannot account for what we did with that money because we used that money to pay salaries, to buy vehicles for government officials and for recurrent expenditure," he said.

The government last week completed the Safaricom transaction after the Court of Appeal lifted temporary orders that had halted the sale. The deal reduced the government's holding in the telecommunications company to 20 percent, increased Vodafone Kenya Limited's stake to 55 percent, and left 25 percent with public investors.

Earlier this year the government raised Sh103.45 billion from the sale of its 65 percent stake in the Kenya Pipeline Company under the same asset monetisation programme.