Former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero on Wednesday told off those criticising the state over borrowing.
In an interview at K24, Kidero said no country is always self-sufficient.
He claimed that even America increased its debt ceiling from 31 trillion to another 10 trillion dollars.
"Also Kenya too has been increasing its debt ceiling for years. These debts can come from a number of ways either short-term debts or long-term," he said.
Kidero said that the country needs long-term debts for development and is a question of mixing and achieving in terms of cost and duration of the debts.
He stated that he is a little bit surprised by those who say that they don’t support the government going to IMF or World Bank and yet they haven’t given out alternatives.
He noted that looking back at Kibaki's days and being the leader of the minority in Parliament, he used to come up with his own budget, expenditure line, revenue line, and how the budget shortfalls would be met.
"All we've been hearing from some leaders are criticisms without objectives and strategies and input onto what to do with themselves and how things can be done."
In October, National Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u came under fire over the breaching of the Sh10 trillion debt ceiling which was set in June 2022 for the 2022/2023 Financial Year.
Members of the National Assembly’s Public Debt and Privatisation Committee censured Ndung’u for not alerting the House in advance when the government was about to breach the ceiling.
Appearing before the committee, Ndung’u told MPs the stock of debt ceiling as of the end of June 2023 was Sh10.27 trillion.
He said the amount comprises external debt (Sh5.44 trillion or 52.9 per cent of the total) and domestic debt (Sh4.83 trillion or 47.1 per cent of the total).
Ndung’u pleaded with the MPs to be part of the solution adding that patience is needed.
“Let us be like a household. By the time the children know there is no food, we will have tried all we can,” he explained.
