IMF to Ruto: Stop lying on hidden debt

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva at IMF headquarters in Washington, DC, on April 9, 2026. [AFP]

The Ruto government’s push for a new IMF bailout faces a last-minute hurdle after the Fund raised fresh concerns about billions of shillings in potentially “hidden” public debt, dealing a blow to planned talks in Washington DC this week, according to two IMF assessment reports released by the Fund.

The Kenyan delegation, led by Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo and Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) governor Kamau Thugge, had arrived in the US capital hopeful of a positive outcome, with Kenya scrambling for a bailout after months of rocky talks, even as a fiscal crisis worsens amid the widening economic shocks and fallout from the Iran war.