President William Ruto has formed an independent taskforce to carry out an audit of the country’s public debt.
While addressing the nation on Friday, he stated that the taskforce will be required to provide a detailed report within the next three months.
President Ruto noted that the report would be critical in providing transparent information to the public and assess how public resources have been spent over time.
He further stated that the audit would provide solutions to how the government would manage resources in a sustainable way that will not burden the 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 stated.
“This audit will provide people with clarity on the nature of our debt, how pubic resources have been spent and proposal for managing our resources in a sustainable manner that does not burden future generations.”
President Ruto further pointed 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 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,” he further stated.
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.
