Ruto: Why I had to plead with China over Kenya’s heavy debt burden

President William Ruto has lifted the lid on the difficult and often humbling negotiations Kenya has undertaken with China to ease the country’s mounting debt obligations, saying the burden had severely limited the government’s ability to fund development.

According to the President, Kenya had been forced into external borrowing largely because of a weak savings culture, noting that the country’s low domestic savings continue to expose it to costly foreign debt.

“The reason why we roam capitals of other countries to borrow money is because we have refused to save our own money,” Ruto said during the County Assemblies Forum in Nairobi.

“The money we borrow from China is the savings of the Chinese people. They save about 55 per cent of their GDP, while our savings stand at only 12 per cent. That is the difference.”

Ruto revealed that he travelled to China twice last year to renegotiate repayment terms after the country found itself paying about $1 billion annually in debt servicing, a situation he said was crowding out funding for roads and other key projects.

“We were paying $1 billion every year, so we could not find space to do any roads or anything else. We had to go and tell them, this debt is too heavy, reduce the pressure because it is hurting us,” he said.

The President dismissed perceptions that such visits were merely ceremonial, saying the real work happens behind closed doors.

“You see the big parade and the pomp and colour, but when the doors close, you are telling the person, please help us,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.

Ruto questioned why the country should subject itself to such situations when it has the capacity to mobilise its own resources, pointing to stronger domestic savings frameworks in neighbouring countries.

“Uganda, which has an economy half the size of ours, has a bigger social security fund than Kenya. Tanzania, with about 60 per cent of our economy, also has a bigger fund because it made the right decisions earlier,” he noted.

The President said the government was now focused on reforms to grow domestic savings and reduce reliance on external borrowing, expressing confidence that Kenya could become financially self-reliant within the next decade.

“If we continue on this path, in 10 to 15 years, we will not be borrowing from any country. We will be using our own resources, and if we need to borrow, we will borrow from our own savings,” he said.

Ruto acknowledged that the reforms may be unpopular but insisted they were necessary for the country’s long-term stability.

“We are not elected to be popular; we are elected to do the right things for our nation. Somebody must take the lead, even if it means being called names, but we must make the right decisions for Kenya,” he said.