Huge foreign debt killing economy, says MP

Suna East MP Junet Mohammed with Judy Pareno Chairperson National Election Board addressing members of the press. (Photo: Fidelis Kabunyi/Standard)

Many companies are sending employees home because they cannot sustain their operations. Some have been forced to close down. You don’t need to be an economist to tell this is a collapsing economy.

Kenyans are already feeling the pain of the mismanaged economy and the poverty level has gone higher in the last four years Jubilee administration has been in power. Household conditions are worsening by day.

In fact, millions of Kenyans are no longer worried about investing, they are struggling to meet basic needs like food. People are starving in many parts of the country.

The Government cannot continue with its bullish way of infrastructural development when it cannot raise money internally. You cannot borrow to pay a debt. You can only repay debts by raising money internally.

They must stop digging deeper in the hole of debt they are already in. But I can tell Kenyans that solution to this economic abyss will only be fixed by the next government to be formed by the Opposition.

We are facing a total foreign debt of Sh4 trillion as a country and we have a budget deficit of Sh900 billion, which is not sustainable. You cannot have an economy that has a revenue of Sh1.2 trillion with such huge debt portfolio.

The economy is getting to recession. Look at the wage bill and runway corruption? Nobody is addressing the issues.

It is sad that some of the loans will be repaid by the taxpayers for the next 35 years.

— Junet Mohammed, Suna East MP