Borrowing spree: How expensive loans have pushed debt servicing to Sh862b

The National Treasury bypassed Parliament and tapped into expensive domestic debt.[File, Standard]

The National Treasury bypassed Parliament and tapped into expensive domestic debt, resulting in Sh861.7 billion in interest payments, accounting for 82 per cent of debt-servicing costs.

A new Auditor General report reveals that taxpayers’ money spent on servicing local loans in comparison to external debt service hit the Sh183.6 billion mark, or 18 per cent of total debt-servicing cost, in the year to June 2025. This means that local debt has now become more than three times as expensive as foreign borrowing.