By Ephraim Njega.
The outgoing Jubilee government will go down in history having behaved like a parent who brought toys to starving children. After borrowing over KShs 2.1 trillion in just four years it is sad that the government is still struggling to demonstrate its achievements. Jubilee inherited a public debt totaling KShs 1.9 trillion but this has risen to over KShs 4 trillion.
The latest attempt at explaining its performance is through a shiny web portal. The portal is just full of beautiful pictures instead of solid project data such as amount invested and estimated impact.
There is little justification for the heavy borrowing this government has engaged in. Projects have been implemented haphazardly with re-election as the only expected outcome. The government has been dishing out projects like cookies to bribe the electorate.
Such projects will be of little benefit to the country since they haven’t been pegged on any serious socio-economic outcomes/impact.
In the final analysis, the country will be heavily indebted with little to show for it. I strongly rebuke the “monumenitisation” of projects narrative. We are told to marvel at the architectural designs rather than at the strength of the business case behind these projects. Every time we ask for numbers we are told to shut up and behold the beauty of the structures.
Those who wish this country well should be concerned about monetisation of these projects. There must be value for money spent. There must be tangible outcomes such as rise in per capita income (real not imagined). It is not enough to just parade a bunch of projects whose impact cannot be reflected in the pockets of Kenyans.
It is simplistic to argue that we are against borrowing. What we are against is unproductive debt that Jubilee has burdened this country with. #JubileeMustFall together with its lies.
