In a statement to the press, the United Green Movement Party in Kenya calls on the National Assembly to use its powers under the Statutory Instruments Act to revoke the regulation that raised the Debt Ceiling to Ksh 9 trillion.
Mr. Augustino Neto, who is one of the founders of this environmentalist party, indicated that “the Statutory Instruments Act states that a regulation must be made under a section of the enabling statute. And the national treasury should ensure that the level of debt does not exceed the level set annually in the national medium-term strategy for managing the State’s debt submitted to Parliament. “
To do this, the United Greens Movement Party wants the 2019 Public Financial Management Regulations which set the national debt at Ksh 9 trillion to be immediately repealed. He believed that Parliament should first and foremost enact the legislation provided for in Article 211 of the Constitution, to guide public debt problems so as to prevent it from being left to the whims of the Cabinet Secretary of Treasury or the Regulations of any other Law.
The governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), Patrick Njoroge, for his part reassured the Senate Finance and Budget Committee last Wednesday that Kenya’s fiscal deficit rate could decline after the increase in GDP.
In an article published on September 15, 2021, the Citizen Digital site reported that according to new data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), Kenya’s debt to GDP ratio now stands at an improved 67.5 per cent as of the end of June 2021 from a greater 69 per cent before the GDP rebasing.
The founder of the united green movement remains adamant. He demands that a competent committee of Parliament be able to take up this matter in order to audit all the public debts contracted in recent years in order to officially make known to the public which debts contracted were valid and which are odious.
Augustino Neto protests against the raising of the debt ceiling and considers that this decision is based on a misinterpretation of the law.
“Because if the correct clause of the law had been used, it would not have been possible to increase the debt ceiling to Kshs 9 trillion, as this would have contravened the provisions of the annual Medium Term Plan. Rather, the Secretary to Cabinet would have made the regulations pursuant to section 205 of the Public Finance Management Act, which is the provision that deals with the making of regulations for miscellaneous Issues. Public debt is such an important aspect of Kenya’s public finances that it cannot be a miscellaneous issue, and even if it was, there is a specific provision in the said Act that directs how a regulation on Public Debt should be made.
Second, the Committee of Parliament went against the advice of the Parliament Budget Office, which advised that increasing the Debt Ceiling to Kshs 9 trillion would amount to fiscal indiscipline.”
– Augustino Neto
Kenya has now moved to a nominal debt ceiling of Ksh 9 trillion. According to the estimates of the Public Treasury, this threshold should normally be exceeded during the 2022/2023 financial year.
The United Green Movement, which is a party that aims to bring about change in the political arena through ingrained principles and values that include popular democracy, ecological wisdom, social justice and equal opportunity, non-violence, feminism and respect for diversity, expect parliament to take into account its recommendations made at this press conference.
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