President Ruto: We Are Going To Borrow 1 Trillion Shillings To Be Able To Run Our Government

President William Ruto, on Sunday, unveiled a daunting reality for Kenya, stating that the nation will need to secure a loan of at least 1 trillion Kenya Shillings to keep the government operations afloat.

This financial strain stems from the recent rejection of the finance bill, a decision that had to be made due to the public outcry.

According to President William Ruto, dropping the Finance Bill meant that as a country we would have regressed for almost 2 years. He noted that the bill aimed to generate 346 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.68 billion), which equates to 3% of GDP, in additional revenue.

"We have dropped the Finance Bill. What does that mean? It means we have gone back almost 2 years.”

"It means that this year we are going to borrow 1 trillion shillings to be able to run our government." He stated.

Speaking at the Presidential roundtable, the head of state also went ahead to state that dropping the Finance Bill 2024 would prevent the government from confirming 46,000 Junior Secondary School teachers on permanent and pensionable contracts.

He also noted that the Government will be unable to assist the farmers in achieving a Ksh.50 per liter return on milk, paying off coffee farmers' debts, supporting the cherry fund, and settling Mumias farmers with their debts.

"It means we can not help our farmers get a return of Ksh.50 per lire of milk, we can not pay coffee farmers' debs, we can not support the cherry fund, and we can not help Mumias farmers with their debts,” he noted.

The President has now urged for spending reductions to address anticipated revenue shortfalls, including cuts to allocations for the Executive.