Nairobi, 06 May, 2023 / 9:20 pm (ACI Africa).
Kenya has sufficient resources to manage its economic affairs, including the servicing of loans and “salary obligations”, religious leaders in the East African nation have observed, and identified “wastage” at County and national levels as the reason behind the country’s economic crisis.
In a statement issued Wednesday, May 3 following their meeting at Ufungamano House in Nairobi, members of the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK) call on both levels of Kenya’s government to cut “off all unnecessary expenditure”, which they term “staggering”.
“The prospects for the people of Kenya are worrying,” IRCK members who include representative from the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), and Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM) say.
They explain, “We are in a position where the government appears not to have adequate revenue to deliver on services, pay back loans, or even honor salary obligations. Unfortunately, the amount of wastage in government is staggering, which is worsening the situation.”
In the statement that was read out by KCCB Chairman, Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde of Kenya’s Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa, the faith-based leaders “recommend that the national and county governments adopt an approach (of) frugality by cutting off all unnecessary expenditure.”