A damning report has put the jubilee government on the spot after portraying how the country's prolific lender, China, has been reaping big from the country's dalliances with debt.
Business Daily reported on Thursday, September 26, that of the Ksh33.54 billion that was paid out to bilateral lenders in the period ending June 2019, Chinese state-owned banks gobbled up 29.21 billion, which is 87% of the total amount.
The Kenyan bilateral debt, currently standing at Ksh5.8 trillion, has led to the government adopting a raft of measures in an attempt to settle the scores with the Asian nation, which has lent the country Ksh671 billion so far.
These reports rekindle the controller of budget's warning in February 2019 that the repayment of the loans was going to be brutal on the Kenyan citizen.
She had warned that the debt crisis was worsening, with the country set to spend Ksh61 billion out of every Ksh100 billion collected by KRA on repaying debts.
“With Sh1.1 trillion going into servicing debt, it will leave Treasury with less than Sh700 billion for expenditure, which is unsustainable. Senate should ask the Exchequer to rethink its fiscal policy to avert a crisis,” CoB director of research and planning Joshua Musimi told the Senate Finance Committee.
This, however, was not the first time such sentiments have been shared.
In January 2019, the World Bank issued an alert claiming that Kenya's debt was growing unsustainable, putting the country at risk of default.
The situation in the country had reached a position that as, Dr. Oscar Otele, a finance researcher, told the Standard in May 2019, Kenya had started taking debt from Peter to pay Paul.
The sentiments were echoed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) secretary-general Mukhisa Kituyi on September 12, when he urged the Chinese government to follow in the footsteps of other nations and write off some debt.
"I think there has to be a discourse that China has to take the responsibility that others have taken. You have to work out mechanisms, you have to forgive some of the debt you gave on unsustainable provisions," he stated.
From Ksh1.8 trillion during the Kibaki era, it is estimated that by 2022, the country's debt procured by the Kenyatta government will be standing at Ksh7 trillion.
