Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has urged Kenyans to be patient and allow the government to save the country from debts.
Speaking in Nakuru County on Wednesday during a multi-sectoral consultative workshop, Mudavadi said there will be a period of pain before things stabilise and get better.
He, however, said the government is working out modalities to ensure the economy gets back on track.
“I said in Parliament a few months ago and I want to repeat again that it is a fact the previous regime over-borrowed and put us in a very serious financial crisis. To get out of it is going to take us at a minimum, maybe three years since we are seeing a debt we have never seen before,” Mudavadi said.
“Yes, there is hope but also we should be reminded that there is no way we will get open passes now from the international community since things are tight.”
He emphasized that to get out of the public debt trap, it will take some time thus the need for all Kenyans to be supportive of the government’s agenda in fixing critical issues moving forward.
“There is also no way we can live without enhancing revenue collection locally as our first obligation targets paying the debts and for now there is no fiscal room to borrow or else, we want to be in default which bears very severe consequences. And let us not just take a shortcut and say the cost of living is high, let us also ask ourselves how did we get here,” Mudavadi said.
As a former Finance Minister, Mudavadi said Kenya was in such a situation in the early 1990s.
He urged Kenyans to brace for this journey towards economic recovery saying it will be progressive and systematic.
Mudavadi said good signs are beginning to show adding that there is ample investment in production and the prices of basic food commodities have started to decline.
“The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has given the recent findings that as much as the Kenyan shilling continues to get a beating against key foreign currencies like the dollar, the inflation rates have dropped significantly to about 6.7 per cent in August 2023, suggesting a positive progress towards economic recovery steadily,” Mudavadi said.
He said it is time Kenyans reason together, walk together and begin turning the tables.
He was accompanied by Wiper leader Kalozonzo Musyoka, PS State Department for Parliamentary Affairs Aurelia Rono, Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu, members of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of the National Assembly among other practitioners and experts in the field of law and governance.
