Tuesday 14th April, 2026 05:46 PM|
Kiharu Member of Parliament Ndindi Nyoro has raised concerns over Kenya’s growing public debt, warning that the country’s financial obligations are approaching unsustainable levels.
Speaking during an interview with local media on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, Nyoro claimed that Kenya’s debt is nearing Ksh13 trillion, cautioning that the figure could be significantly higher when what he termed as “illegal borrowings” through securitisation are taken into account.
He suggested that the true scale of the nation’s liabilities may be even higher than official figures suggest.
According to the vocal lawmaker, the rate of borrowing under the current administration has reached unprecedented levels, nearly matching the total debt accumulated during the entire ten-year reign of the Jubilee administration.
“Currently, the Kenyan debt is going towards 13 trillion Kenyan shillings. If you add now the illegal borrowings of securitisation, then it means in the last four years this government has almost borrowed money that was borrowed in the last 10 years of President Uhuru Kenyatta,” Nyoro stated.
Need for responsible leadership
Ndindi Nyoro stressed the importance of responsible leadership, saying that the future of the country is at stake.
He warned against incompetent experimentation, telling those in power now to think about how these financial decisions will affect the Kenyan people in the long run.
“It is important that we know, as the people who are currently leading. Even as you lead Kenya now, there is Kenya in the next few years, and Kenyans do not want to be put into this and to this incompetent experimentation,” Ndindi Nyoro insisted.
Current debt
Kenya’s financial future recently came under scrutiny after the Controller of Budget, Margaret Nyakang’o, said that the country is getting deeper into a dangerous debt trap driven by costly borrowing and poor coordination in project implementation.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Committee on Public Debt and Privatization at Bunge Tower on Monday, March 30, 2026, she painted a bleak picture of the country’s finances, warning that a vicious cycle of debt accumulation is steadily shrinking fiscal space and making it harder to carry out the budget effectively.
Nyakang’o revealed that Kenya’s public debt had surged to Ksh12.29 trillion as of December 2025, representing 67.8 per cent of the country’s GDP, significantly above the legal threshold of 55 per cent.
“Half of debt payments are only financial costs rather than debt reduction. The principal figure is not reducing. We are just paying interest,” she told the committee.
“We find ourselves in a debt trap where we sign for loans when we are not ready. Treasury mobilises funds without ensuring implementers are prepared,” she said, citing stalled projects such as Konza Technopolis and some Kenya Power initiatives dating back to 2017.
