The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has sued the cabinet secretary for National Treasury and Planning and the Attorney General seeking to compel them to produce information on Kenya’s debt treaties, agreements and contracts signed with other States and international financial institutions.

In a statement on Thursday, May 5, 2022, KHRC said that the process of government acquiring loans from other states and financial institutions has not been transparent in the last one decade.

“The government has taken expensive loans bilaterally from states, international financial institutions and corporations over the past decade but this process has not been transparent as the Kenyan public isn’t involved in the process and is only left to rely on stories from the media,” the statement read in part.

“Despite constitutional and legal provisions that require public disclosure of all aspects of public borrowing, the National Executive continues to operate in an opaque, and shadowy manner.”

KHRC said that they took the move after trying to obtain the information from the National Treasury, only to be ignored for months.

By Fred Azelwa.