Director General in charge of debt management at the National Treasury Haron Sirima has announced his exit.
Sirima, who has been at the helm of debt management in Kenya since 2018 is suspected of parting ways with the Kenya Kwanza administration over pressure.
In a report by the Daily Nation on Thursday, January 25, the former Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Deputy Governor said his exit will give room for young and fresh blood.
“My tour of public duty has come to an end. I need to give way to a young brain. I have a couple of months to go awaiting recruitment of a new director,” Sirima said.
Already, the Public Service Commission, which oversees the hiring of civil servants, has sent out an advertisement seeking applicants for the post.
His exit comes at a time when the country is facing acute liquidity challenges caused by uncertainty over its ability to access funding from financial markets before a $2 billion Eurobond matures in June this year.
According to the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the total public debt stood at KSh 10.2 trillion as of June 2023, compared to KSh 8.6 trillion recorded in June 2022.
This has in turn increased the debt-to-GDP ratio to 70.2 percent as of June 2023, 20.1 percent points higher than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) threshold of 50.0 percent for developing countries, up from the 66.7 percent recorded in June 2022.
The public debt comprises both external and domestic debt, where the ratio of external debt to domestic debt remains high at 54.3 percent to 45.7 percent as of September 2023.
The government has been working on trimming the domestic borrowing to ease the pressure on interest rates, with the short-day papers all crossing the 15.0 percent mark in the current auction results.
