{"id":1714,"date":"2021-04-13T15:03:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T15:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=1714"},"modified":"2021-04-13T16:01:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T16:01:30","slug":"despite-petition-by-hundreds-of-thousands-of-kenyans-against-imf-loan-government-borrows-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=1714","title":{"rendered":"Despite Petition By Hundreds Of Thousands Of Kenyans Against IMF Loan, Government Borrows Billions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/span>\u00a0Kelvin Ogome\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

NAIROBI, Kenya \u2014\u00a0A\u00a0petition<\/u><\/a>\u00a0signed by more than 160,000 Kenyans protesting alleged corruption by top government officials did not dissuade the\u00a0International Monetary Fund<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0approving a $2.34 billion loan<\/u><\/a>\u00a0last week \u201cto support Kenya\u2019s pandemic response and economic-reform program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country has been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

In the Kawangware slums west of\u00a0Nairobi<\/a>, residents are forced to walk a long way to the city center to look for jobs. Food is a luxury.<\/p>\n

Rajab Owino, who had worked as a teller at a local bank but is now jobless, said: \u201cI don\u2019t know what is wrong with our country \u2014 too much borrowing and no action. Look at roads in Kawangware, look at Kibera, there is no water, the whole country is in a mess. How can you borrow a development loan then steal everything?\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Kenyans on Twitter<\/u><\/a>\u00a0community, among others, took to social media decrying the country\u2019s \u201cunsustainable\u201d debt levels and demanding accountability on government spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kenya government is full of corrupt cartels. This money will be stolen!\u201d an online petition circulated by\u00a0change.org<\/u><\/a>\u00a0states. \u201cStop giving Kenya government loans. You are enriching a bunch of criminals!\u201d<\/p>\n

Police denied a request by activists to hold a peaceful demonstration in the capital, Nairobi, to protest the IMF loan.<\/p>\n

In the run-up to the IMF\u2019s approval of the loan, Kenyan activist\u00a0Edwin Mutemi Kiama, who heads the effort to get the IMF and the World Bank to cancel loans to the country, was arrested and detained. He is accused of producing a public notice using the images of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President\u00a0William Samoei\u00a0 Ruto.<\/p>\n

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The Eastern Africa community,\u00a0Amnesty Kenya<\/a>,\u00a0and the\u00a0Defenders Coalition<\/a>\u00a0strongly condemned Kiama\u2019s arrest and detention and \u201cthe court\u2019s punitive bail terms,\u201d according to\u00a0Article 19<\/u><\/a>, an organization that promotes freedom of speech and freedom of information worldwide.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Court directed that Kiama\u2019s social media accounts be blocked, and barred him from expressing himself on matters relating to COVID-19 loans,\u201d Article 19 reported. \u201cThe court also directed that Kiama appears before the investigating officer at the Department of Criminal Investigations every day until 18 April 2021, and slapped a punitive KES.500, 000 ($4,575) cash bail, despite there being no formal charges levied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government defends borrowing<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Kenyan government has defended the borrowing and brushed off criticism from financial experts.<\/p>\n

Joshua Kutuny<\/u><\/a>, a member of parliament in Kenyatta\u2019s Jubilee party, said: \u201cWe can\u2019t run away from facts, and I confidently say without loans, such beneficial projects like SGR [Mombasa\u2013Nairobi\u00a0Standard Gauge Railway]\u00a0and Thika superhighway, among other projects, could have been a dream. Let\u2019s trust the process under our able president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles Mabuka, a financial analyst in Nairobi, said over-borrowing is Kenya\u2019s second-deadliest pandemic after corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thirst for loans is worrisome. The greed by our so-called leaders is way too much. If you want to cushion the economy, you need to have a plan. You borrow with a plan in mind, not like in Kenya, where the government borrows and thinks of what to do. If they don\u2019t get a plan, they steal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0National Treasury<\/u><\/a>\u00a0(also known as the Finance Ministry) has defended the IMF loan, saying the borrowing is for development purposes, and no country in the world has survived without loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe support and reforms set out in this IMF program will go a long way in mitigating the effects of the pandemic, while aiding in the achievement of the government\u2019s policy objectives set out in the recently approved 2021 Budget Policy Statement, as well as Medium-Term Plan II,\u201d National Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani stated.<\/p>\n

IMF approval<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a March\u00a0statement<\/u><\/a>\u00a0about the upcoming loan approval, the IMF stated: \u201cKenya\u2019s economy is now picking up speed after the COVID-19 shock, but the pandemic has left deep imprints on the country\u2019s fiscal and debt positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

It outlined\u00a0four goals<\/u><\/a>\u00a0for the IMF-backed programs in Kenya: supporting the pandemic response; helping to reduce debt vulnerabilities; addressing weakness in state-owned enterprises; and supporting an anti-corruption framework.<\/p>\n

The IMF said in its\u00a0announcement<\/u><\/a>\u00a0of the loan: \u201cThe Fund-supported program will also advance the broader reform and governance agenda, including by addressing weaknesses in some state-owned enterprises and strengthening transparency and accountability through the anti-corruption framework.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government of Kenya plans to borrow $12.4 billion from foreign sources through June 2022, including $7.3 billion in Eurobonds, a report on the\u00a0IMF website<\/u><\/a>\u00a0states.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenya is at high risk of debt distress and reducing the fiscal deficit as the COVID-19 shock fades is essential,\u201d the IMF stated in its March report. \u201cThe government has already begun reversing some extraordinary measures introduced at the start of the shock. This includes the temporary tax cuts, which ended at the start of 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between 2000 and 2018, Kenya was listed fourth among African countries receiving the greatest amount of loans from China, according to\u00a0data<\/u><\/a>\u00a0from Statista.<\/p>\n

Critics have claimed that some loan money cannot be accounted for, and alleged government corruption. In September 2020, Kenya\u2019s anti-corruption agency revealed allegations of graft around $2 billion meant to help medical workers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Source: Zenger News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Kelvin Ogome\u00a0 NAIROBI, Kenya \u2014\u00a0A\u00a0petition\u00a0signed by more than 160,000 Kenyans protesting alleged corruption by top government officials did<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-express","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1716,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions\/1716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}