President William Ruto has hinted at involving Kenyans in the repayment of public debt.
The country’s debt fell to KSh 10.42 trillion in March 2024 as the Kenya shilling strengthened against the US dollar and other foreign currencies.
As of March 31, 2024, this included KSh 5.16 trillion (49.6%) in external loans and KSh 5.2 trillion (50.4%) owed to domestic lenders.
Speaking at the presidential roundtable on Sunday, June 30, Ruto promised to hire forensic experts to audit the country’s public debt.
The head of state stated that this will assist his administration in developing a repayment strategy, citing the Korean government cleared its debt.
“The over KSh 10 trillion debt is in the public domain. But I am prepared to put in forensic experts so that we can all appreciate, yes this is what we owe and agree on how we will pay.
“I was in Korea and learnt that when they had a problem of debt, the whole nation came together… people contributed gold, others many things because they wanted to pay their national debt,” said Ruto.
“Maybe we will need that conversation once we are all clear that this is public debt.”
Ruto stated that once the conversation with Generation Z and Kenyans is complete, he will be able to take the necessary steps to audit the public debt.
The president assured that the audit would not take longer than a month.
Meanwhile, Ruto stated that Kenya will need to borrow KSh 1 trillion to fund government spending following the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024.
The head of state described the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 as a setback that has hampered the country and pushed Kenya back nearly two years.
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