Kenya’s Debt To China Shoots To KSh 1.4 Trillion

Kenya’s debt towards China-funded infrastructure projects have increased by a record KSh 73.48 billion amid an increased clearance of principal sums.

This places the country’s debt to China at KSh 1.4 trillion.

According to the expenditure data published by the Treasury, the amount of money paid to Chinese lender increased by 135.15 percent compared with KSh 31.25 billion in June 2021.

The Citizen reported that the money was wired to Exim Bank of China and China Development Bank in two batches.

The first batch of KSh 43.62 billion was wired around January 2021 and the second batch of KSh 29.86 billion in July 2021.

The repayments to Chinese lenders accounted for 81.4 percent of the KSh 260 million that the Treasury spent on servicing bilateral debt in the nine-month period through March.

Under the leadership of President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya has been taking large loans from China since 2014 to build roads, bridges, power plants, and the standard gauge railway (SGR).

China accounts for about one-third of Kenya’s 2021-22 external debt service costs, is the nation’s biggest foreign creditor after the World Bank.

In December 2021, Kenya wired KSh 29.86 billion to China in the quarter to September 2021 to ease a standoff over debt repayments that delayed disbursements to projects funded by Chinese loans.

The Treasury revealed that Kenya paid the billions in a period when Chinese lenders had opposed Kenya’s application for a debt repayment holiday.

Kenya asked for an extension of the debt repayment moratorium from bilateral lenders by another six months to December 2021, saving it from committing billions to Beijing lenders.