Kenya's Grand Projects and Rising Public Debt

19 March 2015
opinion

Kenya's contemporary economic and development agenda is characterised by significant investment of public funds in major infrastructure projects. Infrastructure is a key pillar of the economy and benefits trade, investment and growth. However, the financing of infrastructure projects should be well thought out in order to ensure there is a significant return on investment to the taxpayer. This means that infrastructure development should be well planned and financed in a manner that is sustainable and does not place undue debt on taxpayers, both in current and future generations.

In order to achieve balanced infrastructural development that directly benefits trade and investment both in the short and long term, public participation and scrutiny in the application of taxpayers money and external borrowing for infrastructure is paramount. Ordinarily, the construction and upgrading of roads, railways, ports and other development projects ought to be undertaken by the state on a continuous basis with funding from taxpayers money and limited borrowing where necessary.

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