Kenya finance minister vows to pay all due debts, cuts deficit

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Kenya's finance minister on Thursday said the government will pay all debts when they fall due, and cut the budget deficit for the fiscal year starting next month to 4.4% from an estimated 5.8% in this financial year.

In a budget speech that was briefly interrupted by the walk-out of more than a dozen lawmakers from the opposition coalition, Njuguna Ndung'u said the global shocks had increased the risks associated with debt.

Ndung'u set the total government expenditure for the year at 3.7 trillion shillings , which parliament's budget committee said represented a lower increase on the previous year when compared with the historical average.The opposition has rejected a raft ofproposed by President William Ruto's government, which argues that the pain is necessary to stabilise government finances in the face of growing debt repayments.

But his maiden budget has run into stiff resistance after his government moved to double the tax on petroleum products to 16%, introduce a new housing tax of 1.5% for every employee and impose a tax on digital content creators.

 

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