Raila demands answers from gov’t over Ksh213B borrowed in a single day last week
By Wycliffe Nyamasege, June 20, 2023
Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga is demanding answers over suspicious borrowing by the Kenya Kwanza administration, just 10 days to the end of the financial year 2022/2023.
In a statement on Tuesday, June 2023, the opposition chief claimed that Ruto’s administration borrowed Ksh213.4 billion from local financial institutions in a single day last week.
Raila, while poking holes in the transaction, said the money was borrowed at an extremely high-interest rate of 15.84 per cent.
Raila noted that the single borrowing is almost half the total approved annual domestic borrowing of Ksh438 billion for the year 2022-2023.
He alleged that the government could have used the ongoing debate on the contentious Finance Bill as a perfect cover-up to misappropriate the funds.
“With the ongoing focus on the Finance Rill providing a perfect cover, the Kenya Kwanza administration has in recent days engaged in a suspicious spree of borrowing which the Azimio Coalition Party demands clarity on,” Raila said.
Raila questions where the money is going with the transaction coming just a week before the beginning of a new financial year.
“Kenyans deserve a full account. Why such a massive borrowing just about a week to the end of the old financial year and beginning of a new one? Can the regime consume Ksh213.4 billion in one week? What is the impact of this single bumming on market liquidity?” He posed.
He suggested that the transaction’s high-interest rate exposes the private sector and small businesses to higher rates on their loans.
“Why is the regime deliberately locking out the private sector from the credit market? the government having borrowed at 16 per cent, the private sector, including small businesses will end up paying very high-interest rates of 24 per cent or more on their loans. Does the administration understand or care about the impact of this reckless borrowing at extremely high rates, on businesses and individual Kenyans?” Raila posed.
“In this latest borrowing, the regime had announced a prospectus of Ksh60 billion bond. What law did the regime use to change the size of the bond midstream? Can Kenya point out the infrastructure projects that will be financed by the bond proceeds in one week?”
According to Raila, the opposition is convinced that despite the country being deep in debt, the Kenya Kwanza administration is continuing to borrow money at extremely high rates to pay questionable pending bills owed to politically correct contractors, without following the law in return for bribes.
He went on to warn state officers in affected ministries including the National Treasury of dire consequences for their actions.
“We are sending notice to the National Treasury and all ministries involved in this borrowing that a day is coming, not say far from today, when all these sins will have to be answered for, and some officers may carry individual responsibility,” he warned.