The International Monetary Fund will send another team to Kenya in January, keeping ongoing talks on a fresh financial programme active as discussions between the State and the lender continue.
The planned visit follows last week’s meeting in Washington D.C., between President William Ruto and IMF Director General Kristalina Georgieva, a signal that negotiations on a new deal are still underway.
The upcoming mission raises hopes that the country may secure a new arrangement from the fund, even as several issues remain unresolved, including a difference in view over whether securitised government revenue should be counted as debt.
Kenya has also maintained mixed positions internally on whether it needs another IMF programme at a time when the administration is working to position the country as an upper-middle income economy.
“We continue to have discussions with the IMF on getting a new funded programme. The President met with the managing director of the fund last week, and we do expect a staff visit from the fund sometime in January to continue the discussions on the programme,” CBK Governor Kamau Thugge said on Wednesday.
The next engagement follows an earlier staff mission led by Kenya’s IMF mission chief Haimanot Teferra, which ended on October 9, 2025, before talks shifted to Washington, D.C.
Kenya is looking for a successor programme that would open new financing from the IMF while keeping a clear framework for fiscal reforms aimed at supporting debt stability.
The previous IMF arrangement ended in March this year, one month before its planned expiry, after the country failed to meet several performance targets, including raising more tax revenue. The collapse of that programme left the State seeking new room for credit at a time when its access to IMF funds is already tight due to nearly maxed-out limits.
By June 2025, Kenya could still draw only Sh64.8 billion ($501.4 million) under normal access limits. The country’s total allowable access is capped at six times its IMF quota — Sh604.7 billion ($4.68 billion) — but it had already taken Sh536.3 billion ($4.15 billion).
David Ndii, chairperson of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors, has said there is still no full agreement within government on the need for a new IMF programme, with some leaning towards relying on the capital markets as the country works to improve its economic standing.
“Do we need an IMF programme? I don’t think we have a meeting of minds internally on why we need it, but that’s because of uncertainties on shocks,” he said.
“In the long haul, our goal is to transition from a lower-middle-income to an upper-middle-income country. Part of that means being more market-facing than seeking multilateral financing.”
Another issue slowing progress is a disagreement between Kenya and the IMF over whether securitised arrears should be part of the debt stock. The IMF holds that securitised revenue is a government obligation, while the Treasury considers the arrears to be non-state liabilities handled by special purpose vehicles.
The position has gained new importance as the government securitises part of the Roads Maintenance Levy Fund to pay investors who take up bonds used to settle road sector pending bills.
The Treasury argues that the funds raised through the vehicles do not form part of the government’s balance sheet, setting up an ongoing point of discussion as the January mission approaches.
