President William Ruto now says the government will have to borrow hefty to cover money that was meant to be raised through the Finance Bill 2024.

Speaking during a roundtable interview with journalists at State House Nairobi Ruto said the government will borrow close to Sh 1 trillion to fund its 2024/2025 budget. 

He explained that the government intended to borrow Sh600 billion if the Finance Bill passed as it was. However they will now borrow an extra Sh 346 billion to get the government running. 

“We have dropped the Finance Bill. What does that mean? It means we have gone back almost 2 years. 

“It means that this year we are going to borrow 1 trillion shillings to be able to run our government,” said Ruto. 

The Head of State noted that the rejection of the Finance Bill 2024 will mean that the government will be unable to confirm 46,000 Junior Secondary School teachers on permanent and pensionable contracts.

Other issues that will be affected according to President Ruto include assisting farmers in ensuring they receive at least Ksh.50 per liter of milk, paying coffee farmers debts, supporting the Cherry fund and settling Mumias sugar farmers debts 

“It means we can not help our farmers get a return of Ksh.50 per liter of milk, we can not pay coffee farmers’ debts, we can not support the cherry fund, and we can not help Mumias farmers with their debts,” said Ruto.

Ruto on Wednesday last week announced he would not sign the contentious Finance Bill into law after Kenyans took to the streets to protest.