Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja has called on SACCOs and banks to consider offering loan amnesty to Kenyans struggling to keep up with repayments amid a deepening economic crisis.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The governor made the appeal after brokering a deal between matatu operators and the government on May 19, ending a standoff that had disrupted transport and left thousands of commuters stranded across the country. “I want to appeal, and I know that through the Cabinet Secretaries that we shall reach out to the financial institutions,” stated Sakaja. “We are in extraordinary times. The crisis we are in is global.”

Sakaja, who will act as guarantor to the matatu operators, said the ongoing crisis was not limited to transporters alone and was cutting across all sectors of the Kenyan economy.

Among the hardest pain points for matatu operators was the massive mounting debts, and growing fear of debt recovery by lenders, including the auctioning of vehicles in the event of them defaulting on loan payments.

📌 What You Need to Know

The governor did not flinch when addressing that particular issue, stating that,  "We can talk to them to some level of amnesty for some time, because people are really struggling," he stated, appealing directly to financial institutions.

He also acknowledged that recent increases in levies and operational costs were too steep, admitting that the government itself recognised the limitations these hikes placed on everyday Kenyans trying to get by.

Sakaja pledged to personally sit with matatu operators as their guarantor at the highest level of government negotiations within the next few days to resolve the standoff around levies and related costs permanently. He painted a grim picture of ordinary Kenyans bearing the brunt of the slowdown, with children missing school, sick people unable to reach hospitals and farmers struggling to move produce to markets, a situation which he describes as the “hardest hit in our economy in recent times.”

The meeting, led by the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen with transport stakeholders resulted into a one week suspension of the fuel protests to allow both sides to consult and negotiate. This comes after failed negotiation attempts, that resulted into the reduction of diesel prices by Ksh10, with an increase in petrol prices by Ksh38 by the Energy Petroleum and Regulatory Authority (EPRA), which is contrast to the Matatu Owners Association (MOA) key demands of a reduction of Ksh46 to not only cushion themselves by servicing their debts, but also not throw the whole weight of high fuel prices on the common citizen.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke