For stalled projects, Ruto is requesting Ksh 148 billion from China
For stalled projects, Ruto is requesting Ksh 148 billion from China
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua disclosed in an interview with a local radio station that President Ruto will ask China for a Ksh148.6 billion loan when he visits Beijing later this month. The money will be applied, according to the second in charge, to finish abandoned road development projects.
The chief of state will also ask for a delay in the deadline for repaying earlier Chinese loans. “Can we talk to see if you can add us time, so we can pay slowly, and add us a little money so we can finish road construction?” Gachagua mentioned what the president would say to the leaders of the Asian country.
The Deputy President said, “If we acquire $1 billion (Ksh148.6 billion), we can be able to repay these individuals the money they are owed so they can return so even as we pay the debt, the roads are finished. The president has reversed his position on foreign loans from when he was running for office and chastised Uhuru Kenyatta for overborrowing.
The nation currently owes China more than Ksh1.1 trillion, the most of which was borrowed under Kenyatta’s rule. Kenyatta invested the money on the construction of roads and other infrastructure projects. But the projects have subsequently halted, and the contractors are complaining about not getting paid. The Ksh1.1 trillion standard gauge railway that connects Nairobi to Mombasa Port was built in large part with this money.
Additionally, once the first grace periods for principal repayments ended, the cost of servicing them grew, with expenditures varying between Ksh125.9 billion and Ksh118.5 billion from July 2022 to March 2023 due to tightening global monetary conditions and a weaker Kenyan shilling. President Ruto has been compelled to enact a number of levies and measures in an effort to raise additional money for loan repayment as a result of this combined with the Ksh297.6 billion Eurobond that matures in 2024.
