World Bank's and IMF's unseen hand in painful Sh3.6tr budget

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo outside the headquarters building in Washington, USA, September 4, 2018. [Reuters]

In the run-up to the presentation of the controversial Kenya Kwanza administration's inaugural Sh3.67 trillion national budget, top policy wonks at the State House and the National Treasury were keen to take a cue from global lenders.

The government planners had "no other option" but to implement the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank programmes through the budget as a condition to revive the cash-starved economy through their generous but conditional bailouts.