Let's not play victims over lender bullying

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi during his vetting. [File, Standard]

Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has lamented an ‘embarrassing’ situation he faced during the 2024 annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF in the US.   

Speaking during the Taxpayers' Day celebrations in Nairobi before President William Ruto last week, Mr Mbadi said he felt ‘truly’ humiliated. To him, it was a low moment for African ministers queued up in a corridor to plead for loans.

It was, in a sense, baptism by fire for our new moneyman! But then, his fury wasn’t just about the wait in the corridors. He was also angry that we’re borrowing amounts Kenya can raise internally. He admitted: “IMF gave Sh78 billion but if KRA puts systems in place, we can collect not less than Sh400 billion.”

Mr Mbadi’s situation echoed former Finance Minister Amos Kimunya's outrage during a past Bretton Woods meeting in Singapore, where he refuted claims that African nations weren’t doing enough to fight corruption, saying ‘noise is being made over minor scandals when no country is immune to graft.’

Mr Kimunya's tenure at the Treasury would later be jolted by the controversial sale of Grand Regency Hotel (now Laico) under a cloud of doubts as the fight on graft, whose gravity he downplayed, gathered pace in Mwai Kibaki’s administration. A lot was at stake.

But Mr Mbadi and Mr Kimunya aren’t the only ones bothered by indignity at the hands of lenders and ‘big boys’ in global forums. In 2022, there was uproar when African presidents were bundled into a bus during Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in London. Their photos inside the ‘matatu’ went viral, with sassy comments. 

Another example of ill-treatment on the global stage was the disregard for African students and residents fleeing Ukraine when war broke out in 2022. They were denied food, held at borders and blocked from boarding trains – privileges that were readily extended to European, Asian and US nationals.

More recently, President Ruto tore into conveners of Africa-Turkey, Africa-US and Africa-Europe summits, which had become lectures rather than partnerships that left African representatives feeling talked down to rather than respected as valuable partners. There are many nasty examples.

While these ‘humiliations’ are painful, they point to a broader truth that we must confront or forever shut up: Africa’s reliance on foreign funding comes at a cost. The lack of internal financial, political and social accountability means we’ve to go abroad, hat in hand, to seek resources that we can generate ourselves.

What an irony that decision-makers acknowledge our capacity to raise funds locally yet still borrow internationally. We know what to do but can’t do it. We’ve assigned ourselves calamity but privilege to foreign financiers. Until we smell the coffee, Mr Mbadi will experience worse indignities now that we’re seeking to borrow beyond the legal ceiling of 55 per cent of our GDP.

Beggars, as the saying goes, can’t be choosers. Those who need help must be satisfied with what they get and the conditions therein, even if it isn’t what they expect. We’re victims of ourselves. In complaining, we’re merely seeking validation. Do we expect lenders to roll red carpets for us? 

Equality is an unattainable ideal. The world, with Donald Trump’s comeback, will never be kind to us. More humiliation will come from the ‘big boys’ because they have nothing to lose while helping us run our economies pegged on their conditionalities.  

Another reality is that Africans are Afro-pessimists. How do you help people who don’t believe in themselves and think financial liberty must come from the West? Few would pity African political elites who publicly call for self-reliance but pursue loans behind closed doors, and flaunt bare austerity measures.

Let’s trust Mr Mbadi and other top decision-makers to make Kenya rich through better resource management. Then we can better manage our public debt, which stands at Sh11 trillion. We must support President Ruto’s ongoing economic rescue efforts.