The National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has proposed to raise Kenya’s debt ceiling from the current Ksh.9 trillion to Ksh.10 trillion.
In a gazette notice published on May 26, CS Yatani said that “pursuant to the provision of section 50 (2) of Public Finance Management Act, the public debt shall not exceed ten trillion shillings.”
The Ksh.9 trillion ceiling was approved by the Senate on November 7, 2019 following a request by Treasury.
This was after Members of Parliament approved Treasury’s request to raise the ceiling to the nine trillion mark on October 9, the same year.
Nine trillion mark was a 33.3 percent jump from six trillion mark that had earlier been set by Treasury.
Should the ten trillion threshold be approved, would deal Treasury a big win to its team’s public debt restructuring framework which is anchored on replacing expensive debt with cheaper and long-term concessional options as a measure to provide relief to the pent up debt distress.
Before the nine trillion ceiling, Treasury was operating on a Ksh.6 trillion debt ceiling mark.
