Government's new funding model is just what Kenya needs

President William Ruto chairs Cabinet meeting at State House on 15/12/2025.[PCS]

Ordinarily, governments finance development in one of these two ways: Taxing citizens in fulfillment of their civic obligations or by borrowing when revenues fall short, most often, to pay for big-ticket infrastructure projects.

In Kenya, however, public borrowing has too often strayed from both prudence and the law which restricts such debt to development purposes. The result today is widespread hardship; a burden of debt accumulated in the name of investment yet yielding little of the growth or returns that were promised. Further, at Sh12 trillion presently, the country has reached its debt ceiling and no longer has the wriggle room for additional borrowing.