President Uhuru Kenyatta justified loans taken by his administration, claiming that they had aided the country’s progress.
During the Madaraka Day festivities at the Uhuru Gardens, Kenyatta disregarded talks of failures of his government stating that his administration has done a better job than all his predecessors.
“I have built more roads than any other regimes combined, that’s the truth of the matter, like it or not (na huo ndiyo ukweli wa mambo, wapende wasipende),” he said.
Kenyatta further gave examples of developed countries that used debt to their advantage stating that countries must look at how other nations prospered.
“To address the second limb, why borrow? We must look at how other nations prospered. It took England 200 years to industrialize, the United States of America 160 years, and Japan 110 years. But China took only 35 years and the four Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the Republic of South Korea took 25 years to industrialize. And that is why their accelerated growth was called the ‘Asian Miracle’,” he said.
The president noted in the past 9 years, the country has moved from being the 12th largest economy in Africa, to being the 6th largest economy and growing.
“We have almost tripled the wealth of our nation from a GDP of 4.5 trillion in 2013, too close to 13 trillion currently. I want to pose a national question; how much is too much borrowing? When does borrowing become much and unbearable to a nation?” Kenyatta posed.
The Head of State added that there has been remarkable growth, tax revenues have doubled from Sh800 billion in fiscal year 2012/13 to Sh1.662 trillion as at April 2022.
He stated that the Government is firmly on course to achieve the record shattering projection of Sh2 trillion by the end of the current financial year.
“The only time debt is a burden to a nation is if a nation is led by looters, but in the hands of a visionary administration, debt is a catalyst for rapid development, I encourage the next government not to shy away from using other people’s money,” Kenyatta stated.