Kenyan Options to Repay Rising Debt Narrow After Tax Protests
- Top presidential adviser’s calculation excludes interest
- ‘No easy solutions,’ FIM Partners’ Charlie Robertson says
Anti-government protesters during a demonstration in Nairobi on July 2.
Photographer: Kabir Dhan/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Kenya needs about $26 billion over the next decade to pay off existing foreign debts and there are fewer options to raise that after the nation abandoned plans to increase taxes following deadly protests, analysts said.
The forecast by David Ndii, chairman of President William Ruto’s Council of Economic Advisors and posted on his X account, excludes interest of about $1.5 billion annually and illustrates what he terms the “debt-financing wall” that the East African nation has to surmount.