Kenya does not lack resources, it lacks a prudent spending culture

The 2025/26 Supplementary Budget went public this week. A quick read suggests that while the government does not lack money, it lacks consequences for intentionally deepening debt and impunity in our name.

The government seeks to increase expenditure by Sh262 billion to Sh4.5 trillion. Recurrent expenditure drives the lion’s share of this increase. Among the 15 major winners are the Defence Ministry (Sh24b), Roads (Sh23b), Agriculture (Sh22b), National Intelligence (Sh10b), Internal Security (Sh8b), State House (Sh8b) and the National Police (Sh8b).

Among the top ten losers are ICT (Sh4b), energy (Sh4b), youth (Sh604m), children (Sh260b), women (Sh160m) and the Kenya National Human Rights Commission (Sh9b), who will experience budget cuts. The slashing of the KNCHR budget signals that President William Ruto has abandoned his promise to compensate victims of violent policing as his administration increases funding to security agencies implicated in that violence.

No longer able to depend on a weakening economy and falling tax revenues, the government is determined to domestically borrow its way through this year’s budget. The 2026/2027 Budget Policy Statement suggests this year will not be the last. The government is targeting to raise 80 per cent of its borrowing from domestic banks, which will further lock out loans to small businesses and individuals and restrict economic growth for most. What interests could be driving these policy choices? The National Democratic Institute recently released its “Public Debt in Kenya: A Political Economy Analysis (2010–2023)”. It argues elite political interests, not technocratic priorities, dominate Kenya’s budget‑making, a finding that all fans of Singapore should note.

Senior officials from the Executive chase large, loan‑financed projects while Parliamentarians prioritise prestige projects instead of those that would deliver greater value to their communities. Banking, pension fund and insurance sector elites benefit from the higher interest returns on domestic debt. Despite our runaway debt, bilateral lenders continue to offer loans. While these interests win from our distress, citizens and small businesses bear the costs through excessive taxation, inflation and defunding of essential services. Ultimately, the national debt and public tax is effectively recycled to a narrow elite of politicians and businesspeople.

NDI’s finding that debt accumulation intensified in the lead up to the 2013, 2017 and 2022 elections is critical for the next 17 months. Incumbents drive pre-election borrowing to deliver high-visibility projects and accumulate for illicit campaign financing. Although elected politicians understand this perfectly, they ensure public participation remains public relations, ignore the technical advice of the Parliamentary Budget Office, and abdicate their mandate to provide parliamentary oversight. Our debt burden is not accidental or natural. Powerful elected and unelected elites have intentionally created it to accumulate millions while most Kenyans pick up the bill. Not content with mortgaging our taxes and our future, a random skim of the Auditor General’s reports exposes the billions stolen or wasted. The national government has poured billions into incomplete projects (Sh38b), abused emergency spending rules (Sh24b), and allowed parastatals to fall into deeper financial mismanagement. Counties have repeatedly paid for drugs that never arrived (Wajir Sh156m).

They have accumulated massive and dubious legal fees (Sh21b) and left major infrastructure projects abandoned. County governments have engaged in brazen looting through illegal MCA allowances, legal fees, ghost workers, and unremitted taxes. Across both levels of government, public money is regularly diverted, oversight is deliberately weakened, while the weakest of households suffer.

Not even this, is the real scandal. The real scandal is that despite two consecutive years of Gen Z protests, nothing has really changed. The bleeding continues because both Parliament and county assemblies ignore audit findings, our criminal justice system remains impotent and responsible officials face no consequences. As we approach the 2026 Finance Bill, citizens must demand debt transparency and fiscal reform. We must compel MPs to act on audit recommendations. We must demand names not just numbers. We must ask, “Who stole this money and why are they still in office?”