Kenya on the Brink: How Debt and Corruption Are Crippling the Nation

Kenya is sinking deeper into a debt crisis, with the latest Okoa Uchumi public debt report revealing that Ksh.7 out of every Ksh.10 collected by the government goes toward debt repayment. The report paints a grim picture of the economic state of the country, showing how debt repayment has drained government coffers and left little for essential services.

Kenya’s total public debt currently stands at Ksh.11.81 trillion, with Ksh.6.3 trillion owed domestically and Ksh.5.48 trillion externally. In the report released on Tuesday, almost half of Kenya’s total revenue goes to servicing debt, leaving very little room for government functions – functions which are also vulnerable to corruption.

Of every Ksh.10 collected, Ksh.7 goes to debt repayment, leaving only Ksh.3 for other operations of the nation.

Domestic debt is also highlighted in the report as having exceeded foreign debt and being harder to trace with the vulnerability of being exploited. Unlike foreign loans, which are closely monitored by foreign lenders, domestic borrowing lacks such monitoring and therefore provides loopholes for financial mismanagement.

“Kenya is already in a debt crisis. Domestic debt has overtaken foreign debt and is more prone to misuse. With external debt, we can track the funds, but for domestic debt, we cannot,” said Alexander Riithi, head of programs at TISA.

It also shows that corruption continues to debilitate key sectors and worsen the suffering of ordinary Kenyans. Approximately 30 percent of the population is unemployed, the education sector is under massive strain, and the health sector, which is corrupt to its core, has become what most describe as a “killing field.”

“About 30 per cent of our population is unemployed. We have an education system that hasn’t been tested. Kenyans are telling us the health sector has become a killing field, where you don’t know if you will survive tomorrow,” Riithi added.

The report includes a set of bold recommendations from both leaders and citizens: ban new loans from the World Bank and IMF, reform the NG-CDF, stop unapproved supplementary budgets, and ensure full transparency on all government borrowing.

“We need to get off the yoke of the World Bank and IMF. These institutions were created to rebuild Europe after the World War. How does that plan help Africa’s development? We must speak about it,” said Saboti MP Caleb Amisi.

“We urge the government to completely do away with supplementary budgets. Each one increases the fiscal gap with expenditures we did not approve. NG-CDF must also be reformed,” added Diana Gichengo, Executive Director of TISA.

The report warns that failure to implement these reforms will push Kenya into a permanent and irreversible debt crisis.

Human rights organizations have since called for the government to make drastic moves such as abolishing supplementary budgets, scrapping the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF), and making all loan details, including sizes and creditors, available. They argue that domestic borrowing has primarily benefited the wealthy, further widened inequality, and transferred funds from poor to rich.

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