Kiama Kaara is a debt expert from Kenya
This Lent we are hearing about how communities in Marsabit, Kenya, are using different strategies to cope with drought, supported by CAFOD. Drought is a major issue in Kenya, with the livelihoods of millions of people affected.
But did you know that Kenya is also suffering from a debt crisis? Along with many other low-income countries, Kenya is making huge repayments on high-interest loans to wealthy banks, institutions and governments. This means essential services like hospitals and schools are desperately underfunded.
Kenya’s debt payments each year are over 80 times the amount than Kenya receives from the UK in the form of aid.
As debt expert Kiama Kaara tells us:
“Everywhere you go, the debt distress has constricted our economy. Life has become harder. People have less money in their pockets. It's a decision point between how many meals a family can have in a day. Fifty-five per cent of our youth don’t have jobs.
"It is the struggles and the pain and the tears that people face every waking day. Debt crisis is not a purely economic issue. It’s every collapsed building, every collapsed road, every child who dies in the hospital because they could not get their medication. That is the direct result of what this crisis means.”
Call for debt justice in the Jubilee Year
In the Jubilee Year 2025, people across the world are uniting in solidarity to demand action on the global debt crisis.
CAFOD is campaigning in this Jubilee Year for urgent action on the global debt crisis. Pope Francis has spoken out about this repeatedly, saying, “The Jubilee calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us to the transformation of our world… A jubilee for our mother Earth, disfigured by profiteering; a time of jubilee for the poorer countries burdened beneath unfair debts; a time of jubilee for all those who are in bondage to forms of slavery old and new."
As we call for change on the debt crisis this year, Kiama Kaara has a message for us:
“I would like the campaigners and supporters of CAFOD in the UK to know whereas it may not be very manifest to them what their own support does in countries like Kenya, a little contribution and effort goes a long way.
"Their support is not only appreciated, but is critical in amplifying the voice of those who drive these transformative actions. The challenges that face society needs a critical mass of individuals, communities or societies to drive, agitate, fight and believe in that change.”