Kenyans are frustrated and have been complaining from Friday, April 2, when the IMF approved Kenya’s loan request by Monday, April 5, the wails were through the ceiling. Kenyans are demanding to the IMF that other international leaders should first audit past loans before approvals.
Kenya was among four counties that were added to the UK’s red list amid concerns about new COVID-19 variants.
As noted UK's COVID-19 situation was much worse compared to what Kenya had experienced since March 2020 and its plan to red-list Kenya due to her coronavirus situation was thus incomprehensible
The protesting going on online against the International Monetary Funds (IMF) loans days after the institution approved a Ksh. 276.7 billion loan request.
In spite of, the protests reached the intensity by Monday, April 5, as Kenyans were still camping at IMF’s social media pages for a third day, questioning why it was still giving loans to a country that is already sinking rapidly in debt.
They urged that lenders to first audit the money it had loaned Kenya in the past before approving another loan request.
In a statement, the lender said its executive board had approved the 38-month financing plan under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). the IMF announced Kenya would receive KSh 276.7 billion to support COVID-19 response and address an urgent need to reduce urgent debt vulnerabilities.
The protest culminated in a hashtag dubbed Stop Loaning Kenya where IMF and other lenders such as World Ban were tagged in every post.
Some of the tweets:
"Don't disburse more funds to the Kenyan government. All the money is being stolen and a common Kenyan has nothing to benefit from it apart from being heavily taxed to repay those loans. We will hit the road and demonstrate if you continue loaning Kenya."
"What tangible project has this government completed with the already existing loans that made you approve another loan?"
"Over 2 million Kenyans are out of work, we can't meet our daily expenses, we can't even put a simple meal on the table, we Kenyans are languishing in poverty and yet you are still adding more burden to us, please stop."
Kenyans obviously didn’t handle the news well as netizens wondered why the IMF approve loan requests even to nations that are already burdened. They now think that the IMF are up to no good and the amount of interests the institution would get from such loans would be enormous.
"Please IMF, have mercy on us as Kenyans. We are suffering. Giving us such loans will make even coming generations suffer. Coming generations should not suffer due to our mistakes of voting. Have mercy on unborn kids. I know you will make profits but please not for now,"
"IMF you seem to be only interested in broadening your financial base with the interests that will accrue from the loans you keep wiring to Kenyan authorities, why don't you instil financial discipline to corrupt African governments by introducing SAPs as you did in the close of the last century?”
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