Aasai

The Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi announced that Kenya needs to pay off its Sh161 billion debt within exactly eight months.  

During his Spice FM appearance on February 27 Mbadi revealed that commercial loans (Eurobonds and syndicated loans) generated a debt which will become payable by October 2025.  

The government needs to pay Sh25.8 billion to the Trade and Development Bank along with Sh10 billion and Sh83.5 billion payments during September. Mbadi disclosed during his appearance on Spice FM that the total required funds amount to Sh123 billion by October when adding Sh3.4 billion.

The Eurobond repayment is just one issue out of many pressing matters that confront our nation because of our current financial stress he further emphasized in his statement. He mentioned that Kenya will face Sh116 billion Eurobond repayment obligations until May 2027 with three annual payments of Sh38.7 billion each.

His statements appear after the Auditor-General released an audit which revealed extensive public fund misuse a month ago.  

Kilifi County allocated more than Sh70 million to purchase office furniture along with equipment during the 2023/2024 Financial Year. 

The delivered items on June 30, 2023 amounted to Sh634,685. A check in October 2024 revealed that the purchased 55-inch TV Sh151,450 valued television failed to operate properly alongside eight outstanding office chairs and unissued four desks.

Auditors detected a shortage of two office chairs together with office desks in the assets registry.  

The Jumuiya Trade Investment and Education Exchange Mission in the US received Sh6.4 million in staff allowances from Tana River County which also spent Sh73 million on specialized medical equipment for Hola Level Four building yet these items remained in boxes since construction had not begun. 

The Wajir County administration headquarters received generator maintenance expenses exceeding Sh9 million.