Report: Public debt payments starving hospitals and schools
Business
By
Brian Ngugi
| Oct 22, 2025
Kenya is now spending more money to service its public debt than on education, health and social protection combined, a new report has shown. This pattern is evidence to a dramatic squeeze on public services which is affecting the ordinary citizens the most.
The report, titled "The People’s Audit: Reclaiming Kenya’s Fiscal Sovereignty" and produced by the Okoa Uchumi coalition of civil society groups, uses official data to track the fiscal trade-off. It found that "debt service obligations now consume more than half of all revenues," a figure that reached 52 per cent of government revenue in the 2023/24 financial year.
To put that in context, debt service refers to the regular payments a borrower makes to cover interest and principal on a loan. This means for every Sh100 the Kenyan government collects, Sh52 are earmarked for creditors before any other public needs are funded.
The audit states this has created a stark inversion in national priorities: "debt service payments have exceeded total allocations to education and social protection combined."
READ MORE
Bangladesh court detains army officers for landmark trial
Shooting of mourners confirms State does not value our lives
Pamoja Chan 2024 LOCs join in mourning Raila Odinga
How Gen Z uprising exposes cracks in Africa's security model
Explained: What Kenya's assumption of COMESA chairmanship means
At least 14 soldiers killed in South Sudan as 'love triangle' turns bloody
KCB Group commits Sh53b to green finance projects
Safaricom banks on innovation as it launches 2025 sustainability report
KMPDU slams governors over remarks on Kiambu infant deaths
IG Kanja orders investigation into CHAN allowance misuse saga
The report says the consequence is a severe contraction in funding for essential services.
The report reveals that real per capita spending on health and education declined by 22 per cent between 2019 and 2025. Real per capita spending is the amount of money spent per person, adjusted for inflation, indicating a significant drop in the actual resources available for each Kenyans’ education and healthcare.
This decline is occurring against a backdrop of rapidly accumulating debt. The report notes that Kenya's total public debt expanded more than sixfold, from Sh1.5 trillion in 2010 to an estimated Sh11.81 trillion in 2025.
The human impact of these numbers is detailed in the audit. It notes that, "shrinking social budgets has forced Kenyan hospitals to ration care" and that public schools "operate with inadequate capacity."
The report argues that this fiscal strain is eroding the basic trust between citizens and the state. It further states that Kenyans feel burdened by taxes while seeing services deteriorate.
"The social contract is visibly fraying," the audit states. "Citizens perceive the state fiscal system as existing to only serve creditors and elites, rather than the public good."
This sentiment was captured on citizen testimonies included in the report, with one participant saying that taxation "feels like punishment for being poor."
The Okoa Uchumi report sounds a clear alarm, drawing "uncomfortable parallels to Sri Lanka’s pre-crisis period," a reference to the South Asian nation's 2022 economic collapse which was also preceded by high debt and opaque borrowing.
The audit suggests that Kenya’s fiscal troubles are not merely a technical problem but a fundamental governance failure, where the government has according to the report become "a collector rather than a provider, a borrower without accountability, and a spender without transparency."