By Patrick Alushula
Kenya’s 18-year walk to accessing World Bank special credit line to respond to natural disasters has paid off with Sh7 billion ($70 million) being released by the Bretton Woods institution to respond to floods.
The Treasury document shows Nairobi, which was granted access to the Sh20 billion window in June 2018, drew the amount late last year after excessive rains in October caused floods and landslides in more than 30 counties.
This saved Kenya the pain of having to draw heavily from its already strained annual budget to respond to disasters as opposed to funding budgetary needs such as development projects.
The special World Bank window is called Catastrophe Deferred Draw-Down Option (Cat DDO), a 30-year credit line with a grace period of five years and usually with very low-interest rates. Read more…
