The International Monetary Fund (IMF) excluded Kenya from the list of countries granted loan interest payments waivers because it’s per capita income was above $1,215 (Sh128,790).

Kenya, which is classified as a lower-middle-income country, recently joined mounting calls to rich nations like China and Group of 20 (G20) to hold off debt interest payment this year for poor and developing nations amid worsening economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the IMF was granting a reprieve to countries whose per capita income was below $1,215 (Sh128,790), which is lower than Kenya’s $1,710 (Sh181,260).

Kenya’s borrowing to the IMF is also small relative to the debt it owes other multilateral lenders like the World Bank.

IMF loan to Kenya stood at $481 million (Sh50.9 billion) in June 2019, representing 5.27 percent of Sh947.5 billion the country owes multilateral lenders. Read more