Kenya on Tuesday lamented its absence from the list of the world’s poorest nations whose debts were cancelled last year by the Group of Eight (G8) rich industrialised countries, saying it was being punished for good financial performance.
Finance Minister David Mwiraria and his trade counterpart Mukhisa Kituyi said the East African nation’s development efforts were being hindered by debt service from which it deserved relief by the G8.
”We are as needy, in fact more needy, than the countries that have gotten the debt waiver,” Mwiraria told a press conference with Jeffrey Sachs, the visiting director of the United Nations Millenium Project which aims to halve world poverty by 2015.
Mwiraria said servicing Kenya’s external debts, which amount to $5,6-billion, had depleted resources that would have been used improve other sectors.
”If we were to get debt relief, we would be able to use the funds in critical areas,” he said.
”We are being punished for not failing to do what we promised to do,” added Kituyi.
Last year, the G8 scrapped 100% of multilateral debt amounting to $40-billion owed by 18 of the world’s poorest nations, 14 of which are in Africa.
The African nations include Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, while the non-African states are Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Sachs, who on Monday kicked off a six-nation tour in Africa to review progress made on achieving the so-called Millenium Development Goals (MGDs), said Kenya’s debt must be cancelled if the country is to achieve development.
”Kenya needs to join the countries that have had their debts cancelled,” Sachs said.
”You cannot fulfil the MDGs and service debts.”
On Monday, Sachs called on donors to deliver on pledges made last year to double aid to poor countries by $50-billion by 2010, much of it for medium- and long-term development projects in Africa, the world’s poorest continent. – AFP
