Kenya Selling Residency, Citizenship to Boost Coffers
>The government has added a new arsenal for raising revenues through sale of citizenship, passports, permanent residency and special visa programmes as products to foreign nationals to complement normal tax base of the country, writes Ibrahim Khamis for The Nation.
Kenya's population stands at 47.5 million and with every child born today owing the lenders $1,300. The country's domestic and foreign debt is now at dreadful Sh50 trillion ($50 billion), 15 per cent beyond the recommendations set for developing countries by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
This is in addition to the current annual borrowing of nearly $2 billion to retire matured loans, finance infrastructure and address other budgetary expenditures.
The fear is that in few years of excessive borrowing and increasing debt ceilings without growing the economy or creating new innovative tax base, the national debt burden will reach unsustainable level and risks of economic decline.
