Githae faces uphill task at Finance

The upshot is that the Treasury has found itself short of an estimated Sh60 billion on its borrowing programme for this year.

The options for Mr Kenyatta were limited under the circumstances. In theory, cutting down expenditure was an option. (READ: Treasury in Sh72bn budget deficit)

But the truth of the matter is that reducing expenditure by a margin of the shortfall in the borrowing programme could only happen at the risk of major disruptions of infrastructure projects, a good number of which were at different stages of implementation.

Another option open to Mr  Kenyatta was seeking concessional lending for lenders such as the World Bank.

The problem, however, is that concessionary financing  comes with excessively intrusive conditionalities, often requiring the government to implement politically unpopular policies.

A bond floated in the international marketplace was also an option. Two major factors made  this option unviable for Mr Kenyatta.

First, interest rates were moving up unpredictably and the exchange was unstable. Secondly, floating a bond in an election year was  going to be a gamble. Hence the decision to go for a syndicated loan.

It is a baptism of fire for Githae who will be coming into the economic-policy-making scene with strong economic credentials and when the numbers are not looking too good.