President Ruto forms taskforce to audit Kenya's public debt

President William Ruto has formed an independent taskforce to carry out a comprehensive audit of the country’s public debt.

The President, addressing the state on Friday, noted that the taskforce will be required to provide a detailed report within the next three months.

He explained that the report would be critical in providing transparent information to the public and assess how public resources have been spent over time.

Ruto also noted that the audit would provide solutions to how the government would manage resources in a sustainable manner that will not burden future generations.

“I have today appointed an independent taskforce to carry out comprehensive, forensic audit of our public debt and report to us in the next three months,” he said.

“This audit will provide people with clarity on the nature of our debt, how public resources have been spent and proposal for managing our resources in a sustainable manner that does not burden future generations.”

He also announced further austerity measures, pointing out that the government would reduce the budget by Ksh.177 billion and borrow Ksh.169 billion in a bid to make up for the Ksh.346 billion lost by the withdrawal of the contentious Finance Bill, 2024.

“Whatever we will borrow will increase our fiscal deficit from 3.3 per cent of GDP to 4.6 per cent of GDP, still lower than last year and will be used to fund some of our critical government services,” said the President.

As of February 2024, the country’s public debt stood at Ksh.11.14 trillion, a figure which was attributed to external loans, exchange rate fluctuations and uptake of domestic debt over time. 

The country’s external debt increased by Ksh.1.4 trillion from January 2023 to December 2023, while the domestic debt increased by Ksh.514 billion.

In retrospect, the country’s external debt dominated the increase in total public debt, accounting for 73 per cent of the total public debt.