Kenya's economic projections are looking up, with growth improvement rising from 4.8 per cent in 2022 to 5.2 per cent in 2023, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has said.
Mudavadi said inflation significantly dropped from 9.2 per cent in September 2022, to 3.5 per cent in February 2025.
According to the Prime Cabinet Secretary, statistics show a positive growth in the overall Gross Domestic Product indicators.
“This has markedly reduced the cost of living and improved household incomes. Furthermore, the exchange rate has stabilised and interest rates fallen, improving credit access to the private sector,” he said.
The Prime CS said the current figures come against the backdrop of the government’s mid-term review and calls for the government to re-look at its scorecard report for the past two and a half years and assess its performance in scaling up strategies to improve service delivery to citizens.
Mudavadi noted that the “New World Order” as a result of the changing geopolitical landscape, coupled with the effects of climate change and global conflicts.
He said Kenya needs to rethink how to reduce its vulnerability to external assistance and develop innovative ways of financing internal budgetary requirements.
He emphasised that prudent management of resources becomes even more urgent within government.
“During the ninth review of our programme with the International Monetary Fund recently, Kenya terminated the multi-year programme, forgoing over Sh110 billion ($853.5 million) in budget and balance of payments support. To bridge this gap, we have to tighten our belts, as we follow up on our formal request for a new IMF programme,” the Prime CS said.
“The critical lesson we have learnt from this is the urgent need for us to grow our own internal resources, to reduce dependency on foreign aid. We must deal firmly with corruption, which is the greatest existential threat to our country’s economic growth and social transformation.
"That is why we have invited the IMF to undertake a Governance Diagnostic Assessment, to identify weaknesses and corruption vulnerabilities in core state functions that are critical to macroeconomic stability and growth,” Mudavadi added.
Mudavadi has revealed that the IMF team has finalised a scoping mission that will lead to the detailed governance assessment in early June 2025.
Mudavadi was speaking at the Kenya School of Government when he chaired the 1st National Development Implementation Committee (NDIC) meeting of 2025.
The meeting brought together top government officials, including representatives from the office of the Head of the Public Service, who is the vice chairperson of the NDIC and Principal Secretaries drawn from all State Departments.
