An Africanist Perspective

An Africanist Perspective

Share this post

An Africanist Perspective
An Africanist Perspective
Kenyan Protests, Part Three: Thoughts on potential pathways forward
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Kenyan Protests, Part Three: Thoughts on potential pathways forward

The case for why Ruto should stop scheming and instead focus on a narrow set of achievable goals to restore the fiscal pact, improve service delivery, and boost growth

Ken Opalo's avatar
Ken Opalo
Jul 19, 2024
∙ Paid
53

Share this post

An Africanist Perspective
An Africanist Perspective
Kenyan Protests, Part Three: Thoughts on potential pathways forward
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
7
7
Share

This is the third of a three part series on the current economic and political crises in Kenya. Part One addresses the political foundations of the crisis. Part Two will tackles the real economic challenges that the current administration inherited, and arguably made worse. Finally, Part Three concludes with some thoughts on the set of bad options on the table for the administration.

I: Three difficult options

There are no easy policy options out of Kenya’s fiscal crisis. There’s a decade-long “refinancing wall” ahead, with debt servicing already gobbling up about half of all revenues. Since access to and misappropriation of state resources is the glue that binds his political coalition, President William Ruto is unwilling to facilitate public finance management (PFM) reforms in the direction of better service delivery and less wastage/corruption. Talk of a national dialogue and the impending “unity” Cabinet that includes opposition politicians are tactics to buy time and political cov…

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Ken Opalo
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More