Kenyan public debt sustainable, president says

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenya’s public debt stands at around 50 percent of GDP but the government is not in danger of failing in its repayments, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Wednesday.

In his final state of the nation address before a presidential election in August, Kenyatta said that around half the debt was in foreign currencies.

“Our debt has grown almost proportionally to our GDP,” he said. “Every year since the start of my administration, we have made adequate budgetary provisions to service the debt.”

Kenyatta has been accused of putting the country at risk by increasing debt.

Over the last four years, the economy had expanded by an average of 5.9 percent per year against a global average of 3 percent, he added.

This environment had seen the creation of 2.3 million new jobs.

“From this perspective, the state of our economy is robust,” the president told parliament in Nairobi.

Corruption remained a challenge but the government had allocated funds for 90 economic crimes prosecutors and established an anti-corruption division of the High Court, he said.

Kenyatta, whose first term ends in August, promised free and fair elections.