This brief reviews trends in public debt service and its potential results on public expenditure on pro-poor sectors in the Kenyan between the financial year (FY) 2017/18– 2020/21. The review zooms in on COVID-19 pandemic period when public expenditure on pro-poor services is highly desirable. The pro-poor sectors considered were the health, water and sanitation, education, and the social protection. It adopted a desktop review method and data analysis was conducted using Microsoft excel.

The analysis revealed that the growth observed in Kenya’s expenditure has majorly been fueled by the high public debt spending. This has been at the expense of pro-poor sectorial spending such as spending in the health, social protection, water and sanitation and the education sectors. 

The situation has worsened because of the Novel Corona Virus Disease. In its report on the estimates of revenues and expenditures for FY 2020/21, the Budget and Appropriations Committee indicated that the fiscal deficit is projected to increase to 7.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the initial projection of 4.9% of GDP as had been earlier indicated in its report on the Budget Policy Statement of 2020.