Living in a Country Where You Work to Pay Loans You Didn’t Take

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 In the Kenya of today, one painful truth rings loud and clear: the average citizen is overworked, overtaxed, and overlooked—yet still expected to carry the weight of a national debt they never consented to, and from which they derive little to no benefit.

Kenyans are not just hustling for daily bread anymore. They are hustling to repay debts they didn’t take, for projects they never saw, incurred by leaders they barely trust.

Debt Has a Face—and It Isn’t the One Borrowing

Our public debt is no longer a line item in budget documents. It’s personal. It walks into our homes in the form of skyrocketing electricity bills, fuel prices that fluctuate without logic, and taxes on everything from bread to diapers. It sits in our classrooms where children share desks, in hospitals where patients buy their own gloves, and on our roads where potholes age with dignity.

Kenya’s public debt has officially crossed the KSh 10 trillion mark, but the real burden is much heavier when you include unrecorded obligations and pending bills at county level. This debt is not just a number—it’s an indictment. It reveals a pattern of elite greed disguised as national progress.

The Grand Theft of Future Generations

The tragedy is not just that we’re repaying unjust debts. It’s that we are mortgaging the future of generations yet unborn. Every shilling borrowed today must be repaid with interest tomorrow. And when the money goes into inflated roads, overpriced tenders, ghost projects, or straight into someone’s offshore account, that future gets darker.

We are raising children in a nation where their taxes are already spoken for before they earn their first paychecks. How do we tell a 10-year-old today that the country they love and sing for in school is already bankrupting them?

Worse still, we normalize this theft. The culprits walk free, launch new parties, and even run for office again—while Kenyans are told to tighten belts they no longer wear.

Public Debt Is Not Always the Problem. Misuse Is.

Let’s be fair: borrowing money isn’t inherently bad. Governments around the world borrow to fund development, especially in infrastructure, education, and healthcare. The problem in Kenya is how we borrow, why, and who benefits.

We’ve borrowed billions for roads, but the contractors are foreign, and locals remain jobless. We’ve borrowed for power projects, but homes remain dark. We borrowed for a Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), but the cost was inflated and the economic returns questionable. We borrowed for “development,” yet even Nairobi floods after light rains.

The issue is not debt. The issue is reckless borrowing without oversight, deals made in secrecy, and a culture where theft is not punished but recycled through politics.

The Vicious Cycle of Taxes and Loans

Here’s the ugly loop:

  1. Government borrows recklessly.

  2. Officials loot part of the funds through inflated contracts.

  3. The rest is poorly spent or lost through inefficiencies.

  4. Loans mature. Repayment begins.

  5. Government increases taxes to meet debt obligations.

  6. Citizens suffer. The economy contracts.

  7. To survive, the government borrows again.

Rinse. Repeat. Collapse.

This system turns the taxpayer into a financial punching bag—and when citizens push back, they are labeled “rebels,” “ungrateful,” or “incited.” It’s a toxic form of economic abuse masquerading as patriotism.

Silent Looters, Loud Collectors

You’ll never see the faces of the lenders—foreign banks, multilateral institutions, or bondholders. They operate silently, behind diplomatic smiles and boardroom contracts. But their agents? They're loud. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is aggressive. They chase boda bodas and mama mbogas, freezing accounts, imposing penalties, raiding shops—all to meet tax targets.

Where is that same energy when billions go missing in government ministries? When COVID-19 funds disappeared? When audits expose phantom tenders?

It seems the state is only powerful when it comes to the weak—and weak when it comes to the powerful.

A Moral and Political Crisis

The debt crisis is not just financial. It is moral and political. We are led by individuals who treat public finance like a family inheritance. They don’t see taxpayers—they see ATMs. They don't represent the people—they negotiate with the people’s suffering.

When MPs approve budgets that spend more on loan repayments than on healthcare or education, they stop being representatives. They become accomplices. When government agencies cut social programs but expand VIP fleets, they choose luxury over service.

And when Kenyans ask for fairness, they are told to be patient or patriotic. But patriotism without justice is slavery in disguise.

So What Can We Do?

It’s tempting to feel helpless. But we are not. Here are urgent steps:

  1. Demand Transparency: Every new loan must be publicized, justified, and debated. We cannot allow billions to be borrowed in secret.

  2. Audit Existing Debts: Let’s know where the money went. If it was stolen, we must recover it and prosecute the guilty.

  3. Reprioritize Spending: Social programs must come first. Before paying China or Eurobond holders, let us first feed our children.

  4. Reject Enablers: In the next election, reject leaders who rubber-stamped economic oppression.

  5. Organize Economically: Support community-based saving groups, co-ops, and boycotts where possible. Economic resistance can be a form of protest.

It Is Time to Reclaim Our Country

Kenya is not poor. Kenya is exploited. Our resources, our labor, our taxes—all generate immense value. But that value is captured by a few, while the many sink into debt-fueled despair.

It is time to end the myth that suffering is normal. It is time to refuse to pay the price for someone else’s feast. It is time to stop working only to pay loans we never took.

And above all—it is time to remember that this country belongs to us.

Let those who borrowed explain. Let those who looted repay. And let those who failed us step aside.

We are done living like tenants in our own land. We are done being punished for crimes we didn’t commit.
We are done being ruled by debt.

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