In the past decade, Kenya has built up both domestic and external debt at a speed that is by all means imprudent.
Yet until recently, the international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which ordinarily flag the fitness and sustainability of such extravagance, never seemed to bother.
The National Treasury in its characteristic know-it all attitude utterly refused to listen to anyone on matters public finance. That was until recently.
Now that the initial waves of a looming debt tsunami have hit our shores everyone, including the Bretton Woods institutions, are running in trepidation issuing warnings on the dangers of heavy debt.
Indeed, the IMF has only recently withdrawn the standby credit facility it had offered Kenya. At the centre of the fallout has been the Treasury's persistent failure to meet a set of conditions that came with the facility, which includes cutting of deficit financing and the rate caps. This was partly the basis of the Executive's recent decision to ram through austerity measures, including the painful tax on petroleum products and deep cuts in expenditure.
But the revelation that government debt is expected to rise to Sh7 trillion by the time President Uhuru Kenyatta leaves office in mid-2022 carries deep gloom.
This is because our current situation requires decisive and immediate measures to secure the country from a looming economic disaster.
Kenya must promptly stop lofty project-driven budgeting, address wastage and rent-seeking, and channel available funds to productive economic activity. This is what rational policy makers would do.
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