Prof Ondigi Abaya of Kisii University believes the country risks getting into a ‘serious’ economic crisis if it continues to borrow money to sustain its budget.
This comes a moment after Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich tabled an ambitious Sh2.3 trillion budget that will see the country borrow and estimated Sh775Bn to sustain it.
On a telephone interview on Wednesday, Ondigi dismissed the budgetary projections for 2016/17 challenging parliament to revise them for the sake of minimising a possible huge debt that the country is likely to face.
“I have gone through the budgetary estimates but I think they are not favorable for a growing economy like Kenya. We already have a debt of Sh1.2 Trillion and this year we will get an additional Sh775 billion should we go with the estimates,” he said.
“This is putting the country at risk of collapsing because in the long run we have to pay back to both international and domestic borrowers. The rate at which we are borrowing yet I haven’t seen remarkable progress in terms of development is risking the economy of the nation,” he added.
He challenged Jubilee government to tame corruption which he said was taking millions of shillings that should be diverted to the economy.
“Corruption is the reason behind this high borrowing rate. The president and his officials should work in speed and tame corrupt individuals in government. If we can deal with the millions of shillings lost in corrupt deals, we are likely to reduce the borrowing rate,” he added.