MP Ndindi Nyoro: Kenyans to pay Sh100bn for Sh44bn Talanta Stadium loan

Kiharu Member of Parliament Ndindi Nyoro speaks during a press briefing on July 23, 2025. /SCREENGRAB

Kiharu Member of Parliament Ndindi Nyoro has criticised as “reckless” the just-launched Talanta Infrastructure Bond following the listing of the Linzi Asset-Backed Security on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

The infrastructure bond will raise Sh44.8 billion, proceeds that will be utilised to support the construction of the 60,000-seater Talanta Sports City Stadium.

President William Ruto on Wednesday presided over the bell-ringing ceremony at the NSE, describing it as “a historic milestone” that confirms Kenya’s confidence in market-based financing and demonstrates how the country can sustainably fund large-scale infrastructure through its financial markets.

But speaking at a press briefing, Nyoro said Kenyans will pay back in excess of Sh100 billion in interest alone over the 15-year tenure of the security bond on an already overstretched debt book.

“The government is coming up with this kind of facility so that it does not seem like our debt is growing, when in reality, we are essentially operating another secret book of debt,” Nyoro said.

“One secret book was the fuel levy; the second is this Talanta bond under the auspices of the Sports Fund,” he claimed.

According to the MP, Kenyans will be obligated to repay the loan at a rate of 15.04 per cent semiannually, translating to approximately Sh3.4 billion every six months until 2040.

“The 15.04 per cent may seem like just figures, but they affect every Kenyan. The government will be paying around Sh3.4 billion from the Sports Fund every six months. By the time the bond matures in 15 years, Kenyans will have paid over Sh100 billion for a loan of Sh44.8 billion.

"If that cannot make us angry as Kenyans, I do not know what will."

Nyoro described the move as “mortgaging streams of revenue” to spend today the money that the country will need in the next 15 years.

“What is the urgency to overburden the country with a Sh44 billion loan, which upon maturity will have cost us more than double in interest alone?” he posed.

The Kiharu MP, who previously served as chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee in the National Assembly, claimed that contacts he has within the National Treasury have intimated to him that they are equally critical of the loan facility.

“From where we sit, it is a very reckless manner of managing the country’s finances, because we are now mortgaging our income streams. Experienced officers at the National Treasury do not even support it, including the securitisation of the fuel levy.”

Nyoro urged the government to reconsider the decision and put the interests of the country ahead of developmental politics “because Kenya will be here past the next election.”

“We do not need to overheat our economy,” he said.

The MP said Kenya has previously built mega infrastructure projects like stadiums and roads without depleting her revenue streams in advance.

“As we rendered those services in the past, we never endangered Kenyans with this kind of reckless financial engineering. The book they need to check is the one on how to make the economy generate enough revenue so that we can provide services and infrastructure sustainably.”

The Talanta Sports City Stadium, set to host AfCON, is expected to redefine Kenya’s sporting infrastructure, being the first major stadium since the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, which was completed in 1987.

Ruto lauded the financing model, saying: “This feat joins our pioneering innovations, such as the Government-to-Government (G-to-G) fuel supply programme that has raised Sh175 billion off the balance sheet.”