OKOA UCHUMI Demands Greater Accountability and Fiscal Prudence in Kenya’s Public Finance System

Nairobi, Kenya, 7 October 2025 — OKOA UCHUMI a civil society group has called for urgent fiscal reforms to restore transparency, accountability, and public trust in Kenya’s financial governance.

Speaking during the launch of a national fiscal accountability report, The Institute for Social Accountability (TISA) Executive Director, Diana Gichengo, said Kenya’s worsening economic situation is a result of poor expenditure management, political capture of public funds, and weak institutional oversight. She described the report as a form of “patriotic resistance” a civic stand to defend the Constitution and ensure citizens’ taxes are used responsibly.

Kenya is currently grappling with a severe public debt crisis, including rapidly growing domestic debt and a shrinking civic space. As of June 30, 2025, the country’s total public debt stood at Ksh 11.81 trillion, with domestic debt at Ksh 6.33 trillion (53.5%) and external debt at Ksh 5.49 trillion (46.5%). This increasing reliance on short-term borrowing instruments such as Treasury bills and bonds has placed immense fiscal pressure on the economy, crowding out essential spending on health, education, and social protection.

At the same time, human rights violations, including abductions and police brutality, have restricted civic engagement and advocacy efforts, further weakening transparency and accountability in governance.

“Our economy is not broken because we lack money, but because of how public funds are mismanaged. We must demand receipts for every coin borrowed and spent in our name,” Gichengo stated.

She emphasized that citizens, civil society, and oversight bodies such as the Auditor-General and Controller of Budget must collaborate to hold leaders accountable for every financial decision made on behalf of Kenyans.

Key Highlights from the Report

• Economic Mismanagement: Kenya’s core problem is an expenditure crisis rather than a revenue shortage, with supplementary budgets and unmonitored spending fueling corruption.
• Weak Oversight: Parliament and key state organs have failed to uphold their watchdog roles, allowing political interests to override fiscal prudence.
• High Cost of Borrowing: Kenya continues to borrow at unsustainable rates 16–18% interest domestically compared to global averages below 4%.
• Opaque Privatization and PPP Deals: Current privatization plans and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) lack transparency and adequate parliamentary oversight.
• Money Laundering and Waste: Supplementary budgets and misuse of development funds have become conduits for economic wastage and money laundering.

Okoa Uchumi’s Key Recommendations

• Abolish Supplementary Budgets:End the frequent use of supplementary budgets, which inflate deficits and enable misuse of public funds.
• Respect Separation of Powers:Parliament should withdraw from managing development funds like CDF, which undermine accountability and blur lines between legislation and implementation.
• Ensure Debt Transparency and Accountability:The Treasury must publish comprehensive debt data, detailing how loans are contracted, used, and repaid.
• Any debt without documentation or parliamentary approval should not be repaid.
• Renegotiate costly external loans to reduce fiscal pressure.
• Adopt Zero-Based Budgeting:Develop the national budget from scratch, requiring justification for all expenditures to eliminate inefficiencies and align spending with national priorities.
• Strengthen Oversight Institutions:Fully empower and fund the Auditor-General and Controller of Budget to enhance real-time auditing and ensure compliance with public finance laws.
• Reform the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Act:Reinstate Parliamentary oversight in PPP projects to safeguard transparency and protect public assets from exploitation.
• Enforce Anti-Corruption and Procurement Laws:impose stricter penalties for economic crimes under the Public Procurement and Disposal Act and Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.
• Regulate Privatization:Ensure that the privatization of state corporations like Kenya Pipeline and Kenya Airways follows transparent, public interest-driven processes.
• Conduct Forensic and Performance Audits:Undertake forensic investigations into ministries and agencies suspected of corruption and wastage, while strengthening anti–money laundering efforts.

Promote Public Participation in Budgeting:

She encourage citizens to actively engage in the national and county budget processes to demand fiscal responsibility and improved service delivery.

Gichengo reaffirmed that if Parliament and the Executive fail to act on these reforms, citizens have a constitutional duty to protect the nation’s financial integrity.

“When public institutions betray the people’s trust, Kenyans must reclaim their power as enshrined in Article 3 of the Constitution to defend it and demand accountability,” she said.

Making his remarks, Executive Director, AFRODAD Jason Braganza stated that more than ever, kenya needs to start rethinking Debt as more than a Financial Instrument.

“Debt is often treated as a mere financial tool, but in Kenya and many other countries, it can function as an instrument of oppression. Its impacts extend beyond numbers on a ledger to governance, social equity, and accountability.” he said.

Country Director, National Democratic Institute (NDI) Dennis Omondi noted that the public finance management in Kenya it’s a full-blown democratic and governance issue, yet the country have laws and constitutions and progressive frameworks to guide it’s public finance management.

“From now and then, we’ve seen people in authority not being considerate on this. What is left now for us as citizens to unapologetically demand accountability?” he added.