ANC leader Mudavadi faults government over heavy borrowing

Amani National Congress Party leader Musalia Mudavadi has accused the Jubilee government of going into a borrowing spree creating a huge debt burden to Kenyans.

Mr Mudavadi faulted the Parliamnet for not checking government's heavy borrowing. "Currently we are facing at a debt of Sh5.1 trillion because Jubilee is borrowing unchecked and the parliament has gone to bed with it," he said.

Speaking during a Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) conference at Whitesands resort in Mombasa, Mr Mudavadi said failure by the Parliament to put the government in check for the sake of citizens is doing more harm to Kenyans.

"Parliament should interrogate reports published by the national debt office published and protect the interest of Kenyans," he said adding that some of the debt taken, the public through Parliament did not have knowledge "as the reports written on the debts are in big vocabularies they do not understand".

Mr Mudavadi further said corruption has largely contributed to the public debt crisis.

He claimed some of the huge amount of money being borrowed are exaggerated for individual interests.

He added that even as commendable efforts in fighting corruption have been made by President Uhuru Kenyatta and anti-corruption agencies, more needs to be done.

At the same time, Mr Mudavadi asked ICPAK to consider the formation an independent public debt commission.

"The commission should have representative from offices and bodies across the board to make policy recommendations, to oversee funds audit in public agencies, support government in ensuring that the principle of sovereign is guaranteed," he added.