Kenya will be spending more than half of the collected taxes on repaying loans starting next year, in a shocking reality following an era of aggressive borrowing. It could get worse should the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) fall below the collection targets, with loans including the Sh20 billion Eurobond starting to fall due. Official documents indicate the first portion of the Eurobond worth Sh80 billion will be repayable within the financial year that starts on July 1, 2018. More pressure is expected from the massive loans granted by China for several infrastructure projects – specifically funds spent to build the Standard Gauge Railway. Spending projections presented to Parliament in the supplementary budget show that more than Sh700 billion will be spent on loan repayments alone. Adding the repayments to planned social programmes such as free education and healthcare, it is easy to see that Kenya can only borrow more to keep going. Opinions on the implication of spending more than half of all revenues to repay loans is highly divided, and often informed by political affiliations rather than reason. Institutions that would typically provide an independent assessment such as the International Monetary Fund have flip-flopped on the subject in their contradictory opinions.