President William Ruto has appointed an independent taskforce to conduct a forensic audit of the country's public debt.
Speaking in an address to the nation from State House, Nairobi, on Friday, July 5, the Head of State disclosed that the audit will provide clarity on the nature and extent of the public debt.
"I have today appointed an independent taskforce to carry out a comprehensive forensic audit of public debt and report to us in the next three months. This audit will provide the people of Kenya with clarity on the extent and nature of our debt," President Ruto remarked.
He added that the audit will provide clarity on how public funds have been spent and make proposals to manage public debt in a sustainable manner that does not burden future generations.
President Ruto intimated that the consequence of withdrawing the 2024 Finance Bill was a reduction of revenue targets by Sh346 billion.
Read More
He noted that the National Treasury has been assessing the impact of either reducing the budget by Sh346 billion or borrowing the same amount.
The president said that, according to the assessment, slashing the entire amount from the budget would significantly affect the delivery of government services, while borrowing the whole amount in full will occasion a fiscal deficit by a margin that will have significant consequences on many sectors.
"Cutting the entire amount would significantly and drastically affect the delivery of critical government services, while borrowing would increase our fiscal deficit by a margin that would have significant repercussions on many other sectors, including interest rates and exchange rates," the president stated.
The Head of State maintained that the government has since struck a middle ground and will be proposing to the National Assembly a budget cut of Sh177 billion and borrow the difference.
"The additional borrowing will increase our fiscal deficit from 3.3% to 4.6% and will be used to protect the funding of critical government services," he added.
The Head of State did not, however, disclose the identities of the members of the taskforce.
According to the 2024 Economic Survey Report by the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Kenya's public debt rose by 19.3 percent to Ksh9.6 trillion at the end of June 2023.
