ABC Capital Research Analyst Joshua Otiende says the clamour could erode investor confidence on Kenya’s bonds in the future thus making it more expensive to borrow/FILE
ABC Capital Research Analyst Joshua Otiende says the clamour could erode investor confidence on Kenya’s bonds in the future thus making it more expensive to borrow.
“What I’m seeing is that there will be aesthetic concerns in the sense that I would not want to invest in a bond in a country where there are questions raised about the management and the disbursement of the bond,” Otiende told Capital FM Business.
He urged the government to speedily deal with the issue through proper explanation to its public and investors who seem to have been lost in the controversy.
The dispute over what happened to the $2.75billion Eurobond sale in 2014 has seen the stock listed on the Irish Stock Exchange lose investors money.
The nation’s debt has lost 4.9 percent since the end of October, the biggest decline among 61 emerging markets tracked by Bloomberg Business.
Otiende also observed that investors are also selling African foreign-currency debt due to the increase in US interest rates and depreciating currencies against the dollar.
A Bloomberg index of dollar debt of African nations is down 2.3 percent since the beginning of November.
CORD leader Raila Odinga Thursday released a list of 10 individuals he says were involved in the alleged Eurobond scandal.
The Opposition leader made it clear he was linking the individuals to the scandal based on their positions at the Treasury but appeared to step into a legal minefield as indications of libel action began streaming in.
“The persons of interests are basically because of their positions or responsibility. That is why we are saying they are the people who got the information. They may be on the first line but as you know an onion… you peel the first layer. So other names will come,” the CORD leader told journalists on Thursday.
He says the Treasury officials should step aside until the Eurobond saga is clear to Kenyans while arguing that there are still a lot of grey areas on its transactions.
“We demand that the top Treasury officials resign immediately and be arraigned in court for undermining the Constitution,” he said adding that the Eurobond money was not paid in full.
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