(Bloomberg) -- Kenyan President William Ruto appointed 19 ministers approved by parliament, even as citizens resumed anti-government protests that have led to the killing of scores of people.
Last month, Ruto dismissed all but one of his cabinet secretaries after weeks of demonstrations sparked by plans to impose levies on everything from bread to diapers. At least 61 people have died in the protests since they erupted in mid-June.
He subsequently nominated 20 secretaries, including opposition leader John Mbadi as the nation’s new head of Treasury. He succeeds Njuguna Ndung’u who was in the role for barely two years. One nominee was rejected by lawmakers.
Ruto also picked four other opposition leaders as ministers including Wycliffe Oparanya and Ali Hassan Joho, and reappointed 10 secretaries from his previous cabinet.
“With the formation of this broad-based government that brings together former political rivals into one selfless patriotic team, we will unlock the potential of our country that has long been denied to us by factional and sectarian competition,” Ruto said in a televised ceremony. “While competition is healthy and good, there is a moment where the interest of a nation is greater than the interest of a political formation. This is such a moment”
It’s the first time since 2008 that Kenya has a cabinet comprising members from both the ruling coalition and the opposition, rekindling a political settlement after a disputed election in 2007 that triggered widespread violence in which more than 1,100 people died.
The ministers took their oaths even as police fired teargas to disperse protesters in the capital, Nairobi. Kenyan media reported security authorities blocked vehicles from accessing the central business district to keep demonstrators from gathering. Shops and offices remained closed and police also asked street traders to leave, Nation Media Group said.
Managing Expectations
Mbadi, 53, has signaled that he plans to reduce the East African nation’s debt burden by pivoting toward multilateral lenders and reducing domestic and foreign commercial liabilities. He’s targeting commercial loans of no more than 5% of the country’s external portfolio, 75% from multilateral agencies and the remainder in bilateral debt.
Commercial loans currently account for almost a quarter of external debt, compared with 4% in 2010, according to Mbadi.
“The number one thing he should do is set some realistic targets and advise the president what will really be collected in revenue, then he can go manage expectations and interests,” said Deepak Dave, an analyst at Toronto-based Riverside Advisory. “He should focus on fixing the mess of inflated tax collection targets, which are making the government to pass ridiculously harsh tax measures.”
Ruto said Kenya will adopt a zero-based budgeting system from July 2025 — so expenses must be justified for each accounting period and not on what was spent before — and announced plans to also introduce a surcharge against any officials whose actions lead to the loss of public resources.
In addition to stabilizing Kenya’s debt, Mbadi will also have to deal with the aftermath of credit-rating downgrades over concerns about the nation’s dwindling ability to raise revenue. The accountant also faces the daunting task of keeping the fiscal deficit within targets agreed in an International Monetary Fund program.
“The market will likely look for reassurances that fiscal slippage in fiscal year 2025 can be relatively contained and that debt levels will stabilize medium-term,” according to Samir Gadio, head of Africa strategy at Standard Chartered Plc in London.
While the shilling lost some of its sheen at the height of the protests, it remains one of the world’s best-performing currencies against the dollar so far this year having gained about 20%. The yield on Kenya’s eurobond due in 2031 rose 7 basis points by 4 p.m. in Nairobi to 11.56%.
(Updates with protests in capital in seventh paragraph.)
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