Nairobi. Kenya has lost about Sh73 billion ($ 847 million) in crime, corruption, and tax evasion in a decade.
This is according to a new study published by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organisation.
The study that was carried out between 2002 and 2011, however, indicates that in 2006, Kenya had no case of illicit financial outflows as well as between 2008 and 2011.
It reveals that most of the activities took place in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007 in the country.
The study also indicates that crime, corruption, and tax evasion drained $946.7 billion from the developing countries in 2011, 13.7 per cent more than 2010—when illicit financial outflows totalled $832.4 billion.
It also disclosed that nearly $6 trillion was stolen from developing countries in a decade between 2002 and 2011.
In East Africa, Uganda leads in the illicit financial outflows with accumulative of $7,373 million followed by Tanzania which had $4,441 million while Nigeria led in Africa with $119,784 million.
China, Russia, Mexico, Malaysia, India in declining order are biggest exporters of illicit capital over a decade while Sub-Saharan Africa suffers biggest illicit outflows.
The report, “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002-2011 is GFI’s 2013 annual update on the amount of money flowing out of developing economies as a result of crime, corruption and tax evasion.
Financial crisis
“As the world economy sputters along in the wake of the global financial crisis, the illicit underworld is thriving siphoning more and more money from developing countries each year,” said GFI President Raymond Baker.
He went on: “Anonymous shell companies, tax haven secrecy, and trade-based money laundering techniques drained nearly a trillion dollars from the world’s poorest in 2011, at a time when rich and poor nations alike are struggling to spur economic growth.”
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