Don’t lend us more cash, IMF told

File | Nation
Safina party leader Paul Muite and chairman Mwalimu Mati (right) during the party’s National Executive Council elections in July. The party has written to IMF urging it to reject the government’s request for emergency funding, demanding accountability for money received since independence.

Safina Party has opposed plans by the government to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund to cushion the depreciating shilling.

Party leader Paul Muite, chairman Mwalimu Mati and secretary general Cyprian Nyamwamu said the government should first give loans and debt registers from 1963 before continuing to borrow.

In a letter to IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, the officials urged the body to turn down Kenya’s application for an emergency credit of $350 million to cushion its currency.

The money is in addition to $310.1 million already drawn down between June 2009 and March 2011.

The officials said they believed the government will make fresh application next week for consideration at IMF’s next board meeting.

“The position of the Safina Party is that transparency requires that Kenyans know what they owe, to whom they owe, and for what purpose they have a debt,” the party said in a statement.

Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, last week announced that the government would enter into discussions with the IMF for additional loans to cushion the shilling.

Some IMF officials were in the country this week and they met Treasury officials. (READ: IMF Africa boss to launch economic outlook)

Mr Muite’s group said there should be no further contracting of international debts unless and until the government accounts to Kenyans through Parliament by tabling the complete list of all loans and debt registers since 1963 for scrutiny.

“We also want the law amended before any further borrowing, so that it becomes illegal for the government to borrow without prior Parliamentary approval,” the party said.

They said most of the debts that Kenya is listed as owing were “bogus, corrupt debts which have impoverished Kenyans who repay annually to the tune of 24 percent of our national budget.”

They accused Treasury of impunity.