Ruto appoints task force to audit Kenya’s public debt » Capital News
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 5 — President William Ruto has appointed an independent debt task force to conduct a forensic audit of Kenya’s public debt as the government moves to manage the ballooning debt.
President Ruto said Friday a continuous outcry by Kenyans over the country’s debt burden that has impacted their daily lives informed the move.
Ruto said the task force will report to him within three months.
“This audit will provide the people of Kenya with clarity on the extent and nature of the debt, how public resources were expended, and will recommend proposals for managing our public debt in a manner that is sustainable and with intergenerational equity,” he said.
Ruto made the announcement even as he noted the implication of the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 which he noted resulted in the reduction of the country’s revenue targets by Sh346 billion.
Ruto disclosed that the Treasury had assessed the impact of either reducing the budget by the entire Sh 346 billion or borrowing the full amount.
Significant repercussions
He pointed out that cutting the entire amount would significantly and drastically affect the delivery of critical government services, while borrowing would increase the country’s fiscal deficit by a margin that “would have significant repercussions on many other sectors, including interest rates and exchange rates.”
He added that the government has since struck a “middle ground” and will be proposing to the National Assembly a budget cut of Sh177 billion and borrow the difference.
“The additional borrowing will increase our fiscal deficit from 3.3 per cent to 4.6 per cent and will [be used] protect the funding of critical government services,” he said.
Ruto vowed to prioritise the hiring of Junior Secondary School teachers and medical interns, funding the milk stabilization program for dairy farmers, reviving of stalled roads program, retaining the fertilizer subsidy program, settling the debts owed to farmers in the coffee subsector and capitalizing the Coffee Cherry Fund.
Other priority areas include enabling public sector-owned sugar mills to pay outstanding debts to sugarcane farmers for their deliveries, additional funding for the higher education new funding model, settling arrears owed to counties, settling arrears for the NG-CDF and settling pension arrears.
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