Treasury CS Hon. Ambassador Ukur Kanacho Yatani has won the 2021 Jomo Kenyatta Literary Prize for Fiction for his role in preparing Kenya’s financial year 2021/22 national budget.
The University of York graduate was awarded for using spreadsheets and others tools to present the greatest work of fiction ever, using numbers. This culminated in the 2021/2022 national budget, which instead of falling in the category of fake news, ended up dominating headlines of respectable news media globally.
Speaking during the award, a senior member of the Jomo Kenyatta royalty said that Ukur Yatani had proved to the world that ‘it can be done,’ and managed to shut down the negative voice of government critics.
“There was no economic survey data, there was no foreseeable increase in revenue, and millions of Kenyans have sunk in debt – taking after their mother country. Yet, Ukur Yatani was able to paint a rosy picture of the state of the nation and even predict a more positive outcome. Kenyans are now smiling on their way to auctioneers, cheered on by an overly optimistic budget. This is great work of fiction.”
Annual Award
The prestigious Jomo Kenyatta Literary Prize for Fiction is awarded to outstanding authors who are able to create compelling fictional narratives that can confuse even the Bretton Woods institutions. The award recognizes writers from all over Africa, especially those who can help governments cover their tracks using carefully rigged accounting principles (CRAP).
The kind of fictional work that is recognized is typically where authors are able to create audited books of accounts from thin air, or just come up with figures that everybody can believe because budgets are an advanced work of fiction.
Ukur Yatani is now waiting for Chefs to do their annual awards, where his entire team at the National Treasury and Planning will feature prominently.
