- Ruto assured Kenyans that the country is out of debt distress and that the economy has stabilized.
- He said this has been achieved after the country reduced expenditure and negotiated packages with with IMF and bilateral countries.
Image: PCS
President William Ruto now says he had to make painful decisions to stabilize the economy.
The President said that he needed to step in and make the decisions to help the country not to plunge into debt distress.
"Our economy today is out of debt distress and that is the truth. If I did not step in. The kind of decisions I have made are very painful. I know they will cause pain. It is better to make those decisions now than get Kenya into debt distress," he said.
The President added that the worst thing that can happen to a country is to go into debt distress.
Ruto assured Kenyans that the country is out of debt distress and that the economy has stabilised.
He said this has been achieved after the country reduced expenditure and negotiated packages with with IMF and bilateral countries.
The President said that the money that was negotiated at 2 and 3 per cent is being repaid at 15 and 16 per cent.
"The biggest killer on our debt is the amount of interest we are paying, it is not even the principle that is a big problem. That is what is destroying our economy. We are not increasing the debt portfolio, we are substituting debt that is expensive so that it is manageable to give us space to grow our economy," he said.
The President said the International Community has helped him replace the Euro Bond which is 2 billion dollars at 20 per cent with the money the country can pay at two or three per cent.
"Ten months after former President Mwai Kibaki became President, the same number of Kenyans said that Narc and former President Mwai Kibaki had made their lives worse than ever because Kibaki decided to make the right decisions not popular decisions," he said.
"It is true, we are facing a difficult situation because that is the global situation. The price of food is coming down because of our intervention by God’s grace."
Ruto borrowed Sh419.46 billion from the domestic market alone in the first nine months of his reign from when he assumed office in September 2022.
Over the same period, the President sourced Sh716.92 billion from the international market from his numerous foreign trips that have again attracted heavy criticism from the Opposition under Raila Odinga's leadership.
In the last financial year ended June 2023, Kenya’s spending on debt repayment rose by Sh306 billion to Sh1.2 trillion, data by the Controller of Budget indicated, as the country’s debt crossed the Sh10 trillion market.
It was estimated that the government was spending an average of Sh3.2 billion daily on debt repayment.