The government is seeking a KSh58 billion emergency loan to cushion Kenyans against El Nino rains and the economic effects of the Iran war, The Kenya Times reports.
Two shocks that arrive in the same household
Heavy rain and a war in the Gulf sound like unrelated stories until you look at a family budget in Kibra. Rain means flooded rooms, blocked drains, damaged stock and a spike in diarrhoeal illness and malaria. A conflict on the oil routes means fuel, and fuel means matatu fares, cooking gas, kerosene and the price of everything trucked into a market.
Emergency borrowing is a response to both at once, which is also why it is difficult to track. Money borrowed against a broad shock can be spent almost anywhere.
What borrowing costs later
Kenya already spends a large share of ordinary revenue on servicing debt, which is the reason development budgets are cut mid year and county transfers arrive late. A new facility eases this year and tightens the next, so the test is whether the spending actually prevents losses rather than replacing them after the fact.
Drainage cleared before the rains is cheaper than relief food after them, and it is the item most often left unfunded.
The Kibra angle
In this ward the rains are not an abstraction. Laini Saba and the lower parts of the settlement flood first, latrines overflow into the same channels children walk through, and the health facilities see the results within days. KNN has published a household guide on what to do when the water rises and where to seek treatment.
The question for this loan is simple. Does any of it reach the drains, the culverts and the health facilities in settlements like this one, or does it stop at national level procurement.
What we are watching
The lender and the terms, the budget votes the money lands in, whether counties receive a share, and what is procured with it before the next rains.
Read the full report at The Kenya Times
Source: The Kenya Times
