Since July last year, Kenya has been incurring debts at an average rate of Sh2.5 billion per day while spending Sh2.4 billion daily on repayments.
According to documents from the National Treasury and the Controller of Budget (COB), the country borrowed an average of Sh77 billion per month in the current financial year, while the government spent an average of Sh72.4 billion per month to service debts. This means that for every Sh1 borrowed since July, creditors received Sh0.92 in repayment.
Kenya’s public debt stood at Sh8.47 trillion at the end of April this year, up from Sh7.69 trillion at the end of June 2021, according to the most recent Treasury data. According to the data, the government borrowed the most in July 2021 (Sh116 billion), an equivalent of Sh3.7 billion per day, and the least in October 2021 (Sh42 billion), an equivalent of Sh1.36 billion per day.
“Overall, the national government’s external debt stock increased by Sh33.97 billion from Sh4,209.56 billion in March 2022. This was attributed to disbursements and foreign exchange rates movement. Debt owed to bilateral creditors decreased by Sh11.7 billion from Sh1,097.98 billion, while multilateral debt increased by Sh60.4 billion from Sh1,817.37 billion.”
“Commercial debt decreased by Sh11.24 billion from Sh1,134.3 billion during the same period. Publicly guaranteed external debt marginally decreased from Sh159.9 billion in March 2022 to Sh156.39 billion in April 2022,” Treasury’s April 2022 monthly debt bulletin states.
According to COB, the government spent a total of Sh651.7 billion servicing debts between July 2021 and March 2022, with 65.2 percent of the total reflecting interest on loans.
“This expenditure comprised Sh226.6 billion towards principal redemption and Sh425.09 billion towards interest payments. External debt servicing amounted to Sh237.58 billion and consisted Sh144.72 billion for principal payment and Sh92.86 billion for interest payment. The total domestic debt payment was Sh414.15 billion, which consisted Sh81.92 billion and Sh332.23 billion for principal and interest payments, respectively,” COB’s report on national government budget implementation between July and March states.
The government borrowed a total of Sh1.003 trillion in the 2020/21 fiscal year, breaking the Sh1 trillion mark in borrowing in a single year. This was an increase from the Sh883.3 billion borrowed by the government in the fiscal year 2019/20.
President Kenyatta will have borrowed at least Sh1.9 trillion in his last two years in office, an amount greater than Kenya’s total public debt between independence and 2013, when he rose to power.
