The Daily Nation ran an interesting narrative that President William Ruto has borrowed more than what the late President Mwai Kibaki and former President Uhuru Kenyatta borrowed within their respective first 18 months in office
DN says Ruto spent the least on developments, yet he was collecting more revenue.
It’s imperative to note that Uhuru inherited a debt of Sh1,800,000,000 from Kibaki, while Ruto inherited a dilapidated and tattered economy that was sinking in debt, starting with Sh8,700,000,000,000 in national debt and $2 billion in Eurobond.
On top of all these debts, Ruto inherited over Sh600,000,000,000 in pending bills.
Well, we should all agree that most of the debts accrued by Uhuru in his 10 years fell due under President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Administration For instance, Eurobond, of which Ruto paid part of it, was to mature in June this year.
Now, President Ruto is using almost 70 per cent of revenue towards the repayment of interest on loans and loan installments. Hopefully, you remember, Ruto’s administration used Sh72,000,000 towards the SGR loan repayment a few months ago. What is left for Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Administration is only 30 per cent, which has to manage both the recurrent and development budgets.
30 per cent isn’t enough to fund even a recurrent budget alone.
That means President Ruto still has to borrow to manage both recurrent and development budgets.
Again, there is a huge difference between Uhuru’s and Ruto’s borrowing.
Uhuru was borrowing when debt repayment was extremely low.
Look at the loan portfolio under Kibaki to understand that point.
Ruto, on the other hand, is borrowing when debt repayment is extremely high.