Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has defended the government’s handling of Kenya’s public debt, saying timely decisions helped the country avoid a potentially devastating sovereign default. Speaking on Saturday, Mbadi said the government benefited from unexpected market conditions that allowed it to refinance maturing obligations. The market opened and this government went to the market, got another Eurobond and refinanced the other Eurobond,” he said. He warned that a sovereign debt default would have had serious consequences for the country and its workers. “You people don’t know what a sovereign debt default means,” Mbadi said.

Source: The Star January 18, 2026 06:58 UTC