FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport toll station on the Nairobi Expressway undertaken by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis, along Mombasa road in Embakasi district of Nairobi, Kenya May 7, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo

NAIROBI, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Kenya’s President William Ruto will ask China for a $1 billion loan to complete stalled road construction projects when he travels to Beijing later this month, his deputy said on Friday.

Ruto’s plan, which also includes a request to lengthen the maturity periods of existing loans, marks a shift in his stance on Chinese debt after his coalition criticised his predecessor’s borrowing spree from China during last year’s election campaign.

The Chinese loans, which stand at more than $8 billion, were used by former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government to construct infrastructure like roads, but many of these projects have since stalled after contractors left over unpaid bills.

Ruto will tell Chinese officials that “Can we talk to see if you can add us time, so we can pay slowly, and add us a little money so we can finish road construction?” Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said on the local Inooro FM radio station.

“If we get $1 billion we can be able to give these people (contractors) the money they are owed so they can return so even as we pay the debt, the roads are completed,” he said.

Africa was a focus of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, launched in 2013 to recreate the ancient Silk Road and extend China’s geopolitical and economic influence through a global infrastructure development push.

But the surge in Chinese loans to countries like Kenya, before a slowdown in Chinese lending from 2019, has angered critics, pushed up debt loads and the subsequent repayment burden.

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The Kenyan government is spending roughly half of its revenue to repay debts that are falling due, official data shows, straining its finances. The situation has been compounded by foreign debt repayments, amid a steep weakening of the Kenyan currency.

The cabinet ordered all ministries to cut 10% of their budget on Tuesday, while the president’s office imposed some restrictions on foreign travel by government officials to rein in expenditure.

“It is true that many people have been travelling abroad, spending a lot of money, and that is why the president ordered that even ministers and governors can only travel with two people,” Gachagua said.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri and George Obulutsa; Editing by)