Kenyans told to be ready for sacrifices ahead of budget reading

By Peter Ochieng

The government wants Kenyans to be ready to make 'short term sacrifices' for long term gain.

Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Finance Professor Njuguna Ndung'u seemingly says Kenyans will have 'nowhere to hide' as the government embarks on financing it's projects and paying debt.

The debt is currently capped at Sh1.6 trillion.

The CS says President William Ruto's administration has a tough balancing to content with, urging Kenyans to be ready to bear hardships, albeit for a shot period of time.

“We have to have some short-term sacrifices for us to achieve the long-term. We have to sacrifice for the future. This administration started with two extreme problems: financing constraints for projects and we did not have headroom for debt," Ndung'u told Citizen TV on Thursday morning.

He spoke ahead of reading of the Sh3.6 million budget, the first under Ruto presidency.

The CS will read the 2023/2024 budget estimates in the National Assembly today, starting 3pm.

Ndung'u poured called water on issues raised by the opposition over the finance bill, 2023.

Opposition leaders say that the bill is punitive, and will push more Kenyans into poverty due to 'heavy taxation' proposals.

The CS however maintains that the measures proposed in the bill have been well thought out.

“All the measures that are going to be proposed will be justified and balanced. They have come from consultations."

The government is banking on MPs to pass the bill so as to create avenues for raising money to fund the 2023/2024 budget.