An audit by the Auditor General Edward Ouko has revealed that the government improperly paid Sh2.7 billion to ghost Integrated Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The audit report published by the Business Daily has brought to light various anomalies surrounding the payments to the IDPs.
Some of the IDPs who were paid the money, the report indicates, did not have identity cards while others had duplicate names.
The IDPs were being compensated in the wake of the 2008 post-election violence that saw tensions flare-up over the disputed presidential election in which incumbent President Mwai Kibaki shared power with his bitter rival Raila Odinga.
At least 1,220 Kenyans were killed and more than 660,000 displaced as violence erupted after Kibaki was declared the winner.
"Examination of sampled list of IDPS national identity cards (IDs) numbers revealed the payments...were made to IDPS whose national identity card numbers provided did not exist in the database of the National Registration Bureau (NRB). The validity and propriety of payments..could therefore not be confirmed," read a part of the report as quoted by Business Daily.
Some of the highlights on that report include that for every duplicate name, only one name matched with the identification card number provided while the other similar name whose identification card number provided was related to a different person as verified in the National Registration Bureau database.