In a colourful manifesto that promises to transform the country into a middle-income nation, the Jubilee administration says it will reduce and eliminate wastage in the utilisation of public resources to generate Sh1 Trillion in savings over five years.
The savings, it says, will be applied to enhance the country’s productive capacity and pay off its national debt.
“A growing economy must work for all Kenyan citizens.
"We will continue to build a middle-income society for the benefit of all. We will work towards high, rapid and inclusive economic growth to create wealth and reduce inequalities and thus improve the lives of all citizens,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said during the launch on Monday.
Kenya is seeking an additional Sh370 Billion ($3.59 billion) loan from China to extend the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Naivasha to Kisumu, pushing the total cost of President Kenyatta’s pet project to Sh847 Billion.
China awarded Kenya Sh294.3 Billion or 90 per cent of the Sh327 Billion spent on constructing Mombasa-Nairobi SGR line.
Apart from the SGR loans, China is already the single-largest bilateral lender owed $3.5 billion (Sh361.6 Billion), or 19.4 per cent of total external debt by end of the second quarter of the 2016/17 fiscal year.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming earlier this month said the size of the loans should not be an issue “since the money is being put into a project that will benefit Kenyans”.
“When a debt is put in the right project, it is not a burden,” he said.
Kenyans are a worried lot due to the hefty loans that are yet to be repaid and with the economic times biting hard, it remains to be seen how the Jubilee administration will achieve its goal of saving Sh1 Trillion.
