press conference with William Ruto in Kenya The President of Kenya, William Ruto After the withdrawal of the contentious budget law that caused fatal riots, Kenya's President William Ruto stated that the country will have to borrow more money to pay for the government. The president has stated that the government will have to borrow an extra one trillion shillings ($7.6bn), an increase of 67% from earlier projections.
In order to keep the government afloat and pay the budget shortfall, this option is being considered. To save Kenya from its debt trap, I have been exerting tremendous effort. As a nation, we can simply declare, "Let us reject the finance bill." Sure, no problem. There will be significant repercussions, but I have generously announced that we will abandon the finance bill, the president added.
Protests in Kenya erupted into violence, leading to the scrapping of a finance measure that would have raised taxes to settle some of the country's $80 billion debt. Opposition and civil society organizations had voiced concerns that the measure would place an undue burden on average individuals and exacerbate the country's economic problems. International lenders and credit rating agencies are already worried about Kenya's rising debt levels, so this additional borrowing is likely to make them much more worried.