Nairobi, March 21 -- The government spent more than half a trillion shillings to service debts in the first two months of this year, even as it remains with a larger burden of repaying more than Sh700 billion in the four months to June.

Latest data from the National Treasury shows that in January and February, government spending on public debt was Sh560 billion.

The Treasury, in the update on government revenues and exchequer issues for eight months starting July 2023 to end of February 2024, notes that total issues towards public debt service hit Sh1.157 trillion by end of February.

This was a sharp jump from the Sh597 billion that the Controller of Budget (COB) reported as expenditure on public debt service, between July and end of ...