By Ndung’u Wainaina:
Safina Party Leader and Presidential Candidate Jimi Wanjigi has been talking and warning on the peril and consequences of debt crisis.
When a country enters a debt crisis, the government does not go down alone, because it goes down with the citizens. It drags citizens by the neck, empties pockets, shakes banks, touches pensions, kills credit, weakens the currency and turns ordinary people into guarantors for money they never benefited. Kenya is almost here.
Kenyans are being marinated for default, and every sign is now sitting in public view, from heavy borrowing to new taxes, sale of state assets, pressure on workers and the fresh interest in private savings.
Ghana was here and citizens felt it through domestic debt exchanges, banks took pain, pension funds entered the conversation and the same public that was told borrowing was for development found itself carrying the bill.
Sri Lanka was here and citizens did not debate theory, because fuel vanished, medicine became a problem, power cuts became life, taxes went up and ordinary people paid for a debt mess cooked by leaders.
Zambia was here and the country spent years inside restructuring, IMF conditions, fiscal discipline speeches and the usual recovery language that always sounds clean until it lands on families, businesses and workers.
Argentina was here and people woke up to find that bank deposits were no longer freely theirs, because when the state panicked, citizens discovered that money inside banks can become a hostage.
Lebanon was here and depositors stared at bank balances they could not freely touch, watched the currency get crushed and learned the hard way that when government and banks rot together, citizens become the burial committee.
A broke state cannot borrow recklessly, tax everything, sell public assets, starve SMEs through banks, and raid workers through deductions. Ruto government has started by eyeing SACCO savings. This is government desperate for financial survival. It is in deep red.
After SACCOs, it will come for banks, M-Pesa, pensions, deposits, transaction flows and every private pool of money still breathing outside Treasury’s hands.
The government will not go down alone.
It will go down with you. Debt crisis is real.
Banking is a small world. One morning you’re exiting as CEO of Absa Bank, and by afternoon you’re unveiled as the incoming CEO of I&M Bank subject to CBK approval.
I&M has been on a roll lately. They’re clearly not slowing down 🙃
It disturbing and disgusting, that in this time and age, there are Kenyans - of good education and sound mind, who believe "DEVELOPMENT IS A FAVOUR FROM THE PRESIDENT". End!
You will never convince me in this lifetime or the next, that THAT man wrote his own PhD thesis. Never!! Not with the way he structures his tweets. No way. Hata Masters nashuku sana sana.
July 2024… pale Ranch House Bistro -Naivasha for lunch and this G Wagon parked next to us… we admired the car .. made a resolution with my wife that we must own one…
Almost 2 years later…
Tomorrow I make the big reveal. 🙏🙏
God has been faithful.
An MP who is always available for pressers, interviews and economic analysis forums but unavailable to vote over crucial matters like the finance bill is a fraud.
Arteta went from ‘trust the process’ memes to becoming the Premier League’s longest serving AND the only title winning current manager. Life comes at you fast!
I don't think most people are fully grasping what happened to Omar Artan. Citizens of African countries cannot travel to the US without first navigating a highly restrictive, discriminatory visa process. Africans face the highest refusal rates globally, not only for US visas +
Arsenal winning the league was actually a mental health intervention.
Banter doesn’t hit the same anymore.
I just laugh and scroll on 🤣
Thank you, Mikel Arteta ❤️