If real life was like the movies, Africans watching with dismay as public debt soars out of control would stand up and say, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Oftentimes, the President goes on a trip and comes back with the news of a massive loan. The people are not consulted in procuring it, yet they will pay for it for generations to come. But there is little by way of reaction apart from temporary noise on social media.
“We must get the citizens angry enough,” development expert Reuben Kigame said at the Pan-African Media Conference on Debt and Development in Nairobi. “Who told you I want the SGR and not food? Who told you I want the expressway and not healthcare?”
This frustration was echoed across the many countries attending virtually, including Angola, Burundi, Chad, Cameroon, Uganda, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Each had its own story to tell.
“We share the issue of debt,” said conference moderator Fidélité Nshimiyimana from Afrodad, the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development.
Public debt is not an evil in itself. “If structured properly, it can be good for public welfare,” journalist Waihiga Mwaura pointed out.
The problem is that a lot of it is lost to corruption, to recurring expenses, to servicing previous loans. So money borrowed in the name of alleviating poverty is trapped in a vicious cycle while Kenyans in informal settlements like Kibera are left in dire need of housing, for example.
And over time, public debt has escalated to mind-boggling levels. In Kenya, from Sh1.7 trillion in 2013, when President Uhuru Kenyatta took over, to Sh7.2 trillion in 2021, or 65 per cent of GDP. On average, Kenya borrows Sh2.5 billion daily. On average, it loses Sh2 billion daily to corruption.
These trillions and billions, however, have an abstract, intangible quality to “a Kenyan public accustomed to calculating daily expenses in hundreds and thousands of shillings”, to quote Michela Wrong’s It’s our turn to eat.
Who told you I want the SGR and not food? Who told you I want the expressway and not healthcare?
REPORTING TACTICS
The art of storytelling was, therefore, at the heart of the June 9-11 conference. The reference point was a market woman in Migori called Miriam. The goal, to make her understand, to make her care, to make her know what action to take. The agents of this change, the media. The aim, to make them champions of prudent debt management.
“If you want lasting change and impactful communication, you have to bring Mirriam on the table,” ActionAid Kenya executive director Susan Otieno said, adding that the impact of debt is more on the women.
BBC’s Maya Hayakawa urged journalists to put a human face to debt stories. To use strong, emotive quotes and heartfelt photos and videos.
She called for relatable analogies and simpler language. Instead of saying this much was lost, say that amount could have bought this many things. Instead of saying inflation, say cost of living. “Use a language that even your grandmother can understand.”
The power of cartoons was held up as a potent way to drive the message home. Various illustrations depicted how, as the Swahili say, “Kukopa ni harusi, kulipa ni matanga (to borrow is a wedding, to repay is a funeral).”
One cartoon showed a man carrying his house to mortgage it, leaving his wife unsheltered in bed. The man was seen as representing African leaders and the woman, the African population. Which begged the question: “When we go for that debt, what have we put up as collateral?”
Now is the time for the media, NGOs and activists to come together and demand a new social contract
WAY FORWARD
So after making the Miriams out there understand what is at stake, what next? How can they be rallied to action?
Civil society was urged to mobilise the Miriams on the ground when views are being collected to shape policies, and the media would give them a platform.
This does not mean the media would go all out on advocacy. It is ethically bound to balance stories, to get the other side of the story. “The media does not like to be used as a tool. They like to be partners,” Hassan Kulundu from the Kenya Editors Guild said.
There was also a call to “democratise debt”. To come up with laws that compel the government to involve the public when taking debt. “Public participation is going to be a big deal going forward,” journalist James Mbugua said.
The conference roped in some legislators as decision-makers, and there were calls to work more closely with them to push back against debt mismanagement, and to push for debt restructuring and debt relief.
The urgency of reform was underlined by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to a greater appetite for debt “for economic recovery and budget support”. The latest in Kenya being Sh255 billion from the IMF and Sh81 billion from World Bank.
“The ‘Africa Rising’ narrative has been challenged,” Oxfam Pan Africa programme director Peter Kamalingin said.
It has come as no surprise that a lot of the funds raised from donors to fight Covid have been the subject of corruption scandals.
Besides public debt, illicit financial flows and public-private partnerships were identified as other avenues through which the continent bleeds money.
Tackling all these challenges called for greater collaboration. “Now is the time for the media, NGOs and activists to come together and demand a new social contract,” ActionAid Zimbabwe country director Joy Mabenge said.
Tax Justice Network Alliance policy manager Chenai Mukumbu expounded on this by urging the various players to take control of the narrative.
“We need political will. We are dependent on leaders to enact laws that help us fight these issues. The media should hold leaders to account. Civil society should build capacity so that the correct information is going out there,” she said.
DISCLOSURE HURDLES
A perennial problem in tackling the debt crisis has been the secrecy in which the deals are shrouded. Something touted as beneficial ends up being a haven of exploitation riddled with hidden costs.
And the people are none the wiser until a leak like the Panama Papers happens. One such leak happened during the conference, revealing tax evasion by the super-rich in America.
Hidden behind the veil of secrecy are “brokers” who will even manipulate feasibility studies to get one’s business. Africa is littered with examples of projects whose environmental impact was clearly in question but they were somehow greenlighted. Especially in the mining sector.
In the quest for solutions, Afrodad developed the African Borrowing Charter in 2013 with nine principles aimed at influencing how governments manage debt.
The fourth principle, ‘Disclosure and publication’, was of particular interest. It states, “African governments have an obligation to disclose and publish relevant terms and conditions of all financing agreements to citizens and should respond openly to requests for related information from them.”
Afrodad policy analyst Adrian Chikowore said actualising this remains a challenge. He termed it worrying and draconian that in one country, public-private partnerships are protected under the Official Secrets Act. “Depending on the country, litigation is one of the best weapons to access information.”
Africa Uncensored founder John Allan Namu pointed out the limitations of this. “Our access to information laws, even if they do exist, sometimes they are just not followed.”
Waihiga Mwaura urged fellow journalists not to despair. “Nothing will remain hidden forever. Don’t give up. Keep pushing. Keep trying. One day a leak will happen and we’ll get that information. And it’s our role to ensure we run with it when it happens.”
That is hindered by commercial interests when media owners are worried about potential loss of advertising. Namu urged colleagues to ask themselves, “Do I want to keep my job or to keep reporting these issues? Choose the hill you want to die on.”
Reuben Kigame, a media owner himself, acknowledged the personal risk involved when in some countries, the government “will not allow you to get home” if you write a certain story.
He asked what should be done to protect journalists. “Should we arm them? Should we enhance their insurance?”
Maya Hayakawa said the BBC goes to great lengths to protect whistleblowers and journalists. She urged colleagues to get legal advice. “You might want to do the story anonymously. There are lots of organisations that support that.”
TWEETING NOT ENOUGH
As the conference was going on, the 2021-22 budget was read across East Africa. In Kenya, Treasury CS Ukur Yatani said the country’s debt “remains sustainable, though its carrying capacity continues to decline”.
Economists found the sustainability assessment laughable when for every Sh100 collected, Sh66 goes towards payment of loans. The irony of Kenya’s exclusion from the list of countries in debt distress was not lost on attendees when the conference on debt itself was being hosted in Kenya.
Ghosts of previous borrowing have come back to haunt the country. With Kenya’s first Eurobond maturing this year, the government is planning to borrow another Sh780 billion in Eurobonds to service prior loans.
Whenever the debt ceiling is a barrier, the government gets Parliament to raise it. Sh9 trillion isn’t high enough.
At what point do people say enough is enough? Njoki Njehu from the Fight Inequality Alliance drew a parallel with the George Floyd case. “Debt is a knee on the neck of Africans. We can’t breathe.”
The IMF loan came as close to getting Kenyans to the tipping point as is usual for the middle class. They started a hashtag: #StopLoaningKenya.
It seems the revolution will not be televised; it will be tweeted. Unless the people who feel strongly enough about it find a way to galvanise the public.
Tom Jalio is the features editor of the Star and a part-time writer with awards in poetry and journalism. He recently studied #ProductImmersion courtesy of the Google News Initiative