Ruto warns of ‘huge consequences’ over rejected Bill

Kenya's President William Ruto says the country will have to borrow more to keep the government running following the rejection of a hugely unpopular finance Bill that was going to raise taxes. BBC News reports that the President, who agreed to withdraw the Bill following violent clashes, said the move had set the country back two years. He said Kenya would have to borrow one trillion shillings ($7.6bn) ‘just to be able to run our government’. This is a 67% increase on what had been planned. However, he added that he was considering cuts in spending across government, including in his own office, as well as reducing allocations to the judiciary and the county governments. According to the President, the proposed tax measures were part of efforts to cut the debt burden of over $80bn. About 60% of Kenya’s collected revenues goes to servicing debt. ‘I have been working very hard to pull Kenya out of a debt trap... It is easy for us, as a country, to say “Let us reject the finance Bill”. That is fine … but it will have huge consequences,’ he said.