President William Ruto has said that his administration has managed to stabilize the economy despite criticism from his detractors that the economic outlook has worsened during his regime.
President Ruto has pointed out that his government has moved away from sponsoring the budget of the current financial year through borrowing and focused on funding the budget through taxes imposed on Kenyans.
“We have stabilized the economy of the people of Kenya. We must build this country on a solid foundation not on a foundation of debt. The economy is now stabilized,” said Ruto.
Ruto was speaking during an interdenominational church service at Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri County.
The Head of State buttressed that the government has moved forward to make plans of settling foreign debts before their maturity to ensure the nation is not caught off guard due to an unmitigated crisis.
President Ruto expressed that failure to initiate early plans to repay the foreign loans would have risked the country to default on the loan.
“We sat down and planned and said that we won’t wait until next year June. Those rogue credit rating agencies, those who are used to use fishy ways to increase debt have now written to us questioning why we are paying the loan early,” said Ruto.
The key risk that Kenya will face is in 2024 when a Eurobond comes up for repayment.
Ruto’s government, which took over in September, has pledged to curb expensive commercial borrowing in favor of cheaper sources like the World Bank to reduce debt servicing pressures.
The country has been ranked the sixth country most likely to default on its public debt in new findings based on Bloomberg data.
Public debts, which is money owed to the country by domestic and foreign lenders, now account for a significant portion of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.
