A legal petition has been submitted to the Milimani Law Court, seeking to impose a halt on the National Treasury’s borrowing activities.
The move also aims to bar any government borrowing until a thorough audit of the country’s debt is conducted.
Linda Ugatuzi officials Philip Alusiola, Dr Fred Ogola and Dennis Wendo. The movement has submitted a legal petition to the court regarding national debt.Photo| Courtesy
Operation Linda Ugatuzi, is the body responsible for initiating the petition. Operation Linda Ugatuzi loosely translates to “Protect Devolution.” The movement aims to compel the court to instruct the National Treasury and the Central Bank of Kenya to rectify the recorded national debt data.
Prof. Fred Ogola from Linda Ugatuzi, submitted an affidavit that asserts that, the National Assembly introduced amendments in 2014 to Section 50 (97) of the Public Finance Management Act No. 18 of 2012.
According to the petitioner, these amendments created avenues for the government to borrow funds that lacked authorization from the appropriate parliamentary acts. Thus violating constitutional requirements.
The changes eliminated the constitutional mandate that foreign aid or government borrowing be channeled into the consolidated fund or the other three public funds designated by the constitution.
Furthermore, the petitioner contends that the nation’s outstanding debt stood at Ksh2.37 trillion as of 2014/15. The figure has since escalated significantly. This surge, it is argued, has been driven by illicit public debt practices originating from the National Treasury.
The petitioner also asserts that several of the country’s debts were never validated by the requisite acts as mandated by the law. Consequently, these debts cannot be linked to any development projects within the financial year 2014/2015.
