NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya’s public debt has ballooned by Sh1.4 trillion under President William Ruto’s first two years in office, reaching an all-time high of Sh10.6 trillion by the end of 2024 — despite his repeated pledges to wean the country off unsustainable borrowing.
New figures from the Central Bank of Kenya show that public debt now stands at 63 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), well above the 55 percent threshold recommended for developing economies. The debt is almost evenly split, with Sh5.2 trillion from domestic lenders and Sh5.4 trillion borrowed externally.
When President Ruto assumed office in September 2022, he inherited a public debt stock of Sh8.6 trillion. At the time, he made strong commitments to reduce the country’s reliance on loans, promising a shift toward investment-led growth, expanded tax revenues, and reduced expenditure on flashy infrastructure projects.
“We will change this tradition of applying for loans and be all about investments and labour-intensive programmes as opposed to capital-intensive projects,” Ruto said during a campaign event in June 2022.
Yet two years later, Kenya’s fiscal trajectory tells a different story. The 2025/2026 national budget proposes Sh4.2 trillion in spending, of which Sh876.1 billion — more than 20 percent — will be financed through fresh borrowing, both domestic and foreign.
In fact, Treasury documents show the government has already overshot its domestic borrowing target for the current financial year by Sh220 billion.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has flagged the sustainability of these financing strategies, cautioning that revenue projections underpinning the budget are overly ambitious and potentially misleading. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has persistently missed its revenue targets, leaving gaps that are routinely plugged with debt.
The rising cost of servicing that debt is also beginning to squeeze out other priorities. Interest payments have soared from Sh171 billion in 2014 to a staggering Sh1.2 trillion in the current financial year — a sevenfold jump in just a decade.
Despite these warning signs, lawmakers appear less concerned. National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee chairperson Samuel Atandi downplayed fears of a looming debt crisis, insisting the situation remains under control.
“Debt is unavoidable. We must borrow prudently going forward,” Atandi said.
But civil society groups and economic analysts are ringing alarm bells, warning that Kenya risks falling into a debt trap that could force future administrations to cut back on essential services or hike taxes further to stay afloat.
