Kenya’s Debt Crisis: A Call for Review, Growth, and Justice

Kenya’s public debt has become a defining issue of our economic future, an unsustainable weight that threatens fiscal sovereignty, service delivery, and the aspirations of millions of citizens. In a charged conversation led by Professor Fred Ogola and the Hekima Alliance, the debate over debt was stripped of political theatrics and grounded in hard truths, legal action, and structural reform.

Moving Beyond “Odious Debt”

Professor Ogola was emphatic: the popular call to classify portions of Kenya’s loans as “odious debt” is, in practice, a dead-end.

Instead, Ogola calls for something more practical and urgent: a debt review. This means auditing all public debt to identify loans that were harmful, unjustified, or fraudulently acquired. Such debts, he argues, should be renegotiated, restructured, or frozen, shielding Kenyans from being forced to repay what did not benefit them.

From Endless Borrowing to Growth

The solution, he insisted, lies not in perpetual debt cycles but in building economic growth capacity. By strengthening domestic revenue streams, encouraging productive investment, and cutting dependency on foreign borrowing, Kenya can restore its fiscal independence.

This approach demands a clean break from the prevailing model of borrowing to plug deficits. Instead, it envisions an economy where growth, not loans, fuels development.

Court Action and Fiscal Activism

Unlike many political voices content to talk about debt, Ogola has chosen to act. He reminded the audience that he has personally gone to court to demand a debt review for Kenya, underscoring Hekima Alliance’s activist edge.

A Three-Pillar Debt Strategy

The Hekima Alliance frames its debt agenda around three core pillars:

Rejecting endless borrowing and instead driving economic growth as the long-term solution.
Pushing for a debt review to confront unjust, harmful, or fraudulent debts directly.
Replacing rhetoric with practical action, from litigation to policy reforms.