The Principal Secretary for the State Department of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development, Susan Mang’eni, has refuted claims that cash from the Hustler Fund were disbursed to minors and other unintended beneficiaries.
Appearing before the Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives to discuss the Supplementary Estimates No. 2 for the 2024/2025 financial year, PS Mang’eni maintained that no money from the fund had been lost.
Her remarks follow a recent report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, which indicated that Sh31.8 million had been disbursed to 44,167 underage beneficiaries, including infants as young as 10 days old.
The audit report for the 2023/2024 financial year further claimed that some beneficiaries included unborn individuals with future birth dates ranging from July 2024 to December 2073.
However, PS Mang’eni clarified that the audit was based on erroneous data, asserting that underage individuals cannot access the fund.
“The data used in the audit report contained significant extraction errors. We have since cleaned up the records, and all individuals sampled have verified identity card and telephone numbers,” she stated.
