John Mbadi CS National Treasury and Economic Planning
Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has defended the government’s decision to securitize part of the Road Maintenance Levy Fund.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mbadi dismissed critics of the plan, stating that the government had no apologies to make and would proceed with it as planned.
“There is nothing, nothing at all secret about securitisation. Everybody knows it. Where does he live if he doesn’t know that we were securitizing this money? And we will continue securitising it. And we have no apologies to make,” said Mbadi.
The Treasury CS explained that the currently disputed RMLF has remained unchanged and continues to serve its original purpose.
According to Mbadi, the Ksh7 introduced to the levy was repurposed to address pressing issues in the infrastructure sector, specifically to settle debts owed to road contractors.
”If you securitise this money, and by the way, we have already received over Ksh60 billion, and you can see road contractors are back on the road, but we are raising Ksh175 billion. If you add that, if you use even half of that money this financial year and add it to our normal budget of about Ksh57 billion, you will have over Ksh120 billion. You will pay all the certificates for the whole financial year,” Mbadi stated.
This comes after Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro alleged that the additional Ksh7 levy had been secretly used as collateral to secure a Ksh 175 billion loan.
“This is partly why fuel prices keep going up. What’s even more unfortunate is that this year, the government has used that seven-shilling levy as collateral to secure a loan of Ksh175 billion from banks. This money doesn’t appear in the government’s official debt records.”
In the latest review, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) increased the price of super petrol, diesel, and kerosene by Ksh8.99, Ksh8.67, and Ksh9.65, respectively.
Also Read: EPRA Fuel Price Hike July – August 2025
