Speaking during one of the sessions at the WSF, the campaigners said the over Sh700 billion debt, of which Sh400 billion is debt from domestic borrowing and over Sh300 billion from external sources, is being paid by the poor for services not rendered.

Kenyan delegates at the session “Kenya’s Debt and Kenya’s Actions” said they suspect that 80 per cent of the donor funds benefited individuals.

“Most of these government debts have been turned into personal debts, with people being over-taxed in order to service them,” says M P Giyose, national chairperson, Jubilee South Africa.

Opening up the Kenyan debt register for public scrutiny will set in motion two critical things. One is identifying the illegitimate debts and second is prosecuting those who were responsible for misuse.

The debt register shows how much was received from donors and for what purposes. Kenya’s debt register available includes donor funding up to 2002. Questionable deals such as Anglo Leasing are not included.

Bruening who is a research, advocacy and information technology manager at the Catholic Secretariat says illegitimate debts are loans taken by countries but do not benefit the public. Instead, they ended up lining the pockets of few individuals.

This money could also be used by the government to finance repressive activities targeting its own citizens.

Kenya Episcopal Conference is part of an Inter-Religious campaign launched in 2005 by the Catholic Economic Justice Network to campaign for the cancellation of the illegitimate debts.

Delegates at the meeting said most of the donor funds are said to have, on paper, completed certain projects, which are non-existent on the ground. Only by using what is in the debt register can a person go to the ground and collaborate it with what is on paper.

“We are calling for unconditional cancellation of all illegitimate debts and reparations of the funds from foreign companies who benefited,” says Giyose.

“But we are opposed to conditional debt cancellation as it is like closing one door and opening another punitive one,” he explains.

“Once we have identified how much of the debt is illegitimate, then we can be in a better position to present evidence to the donors on why they need to cancel such debts,” says Njuki Githethwa of Kenya Debt Relief Network.

The identification is also going to help tell who in the past and current government was responsible for the misuse of public funds. They will then be prosecuted and made to return the money.

But the biggest challenge the campaigners are facing is some donors and receivers of the funds are not acknowledging that the debts were used illegitimately.

“The only way for the debt cancellation to happen is for a donor and a receiver of the funds to accept a wrong was done, and agree to work on it,” says Bruening.

So far, only Norway has cancelled debts of five countries after accepting that its funds to these countries did not benefit their public.

Negotiation between Kenya and Italian governments on debt cancellation has resulted in the latter instead agreeing to convert the debt into financing development programmes within the country.

Under this arrangement, the money the government is supposed to pay Italy as debt repayment is channelled to a fund.

A committee compromising individuals from the two governments decided programmes the money should be channelled to. So far, part of the funds has been earmarked for slum upgrading.

The only problem, debt campaigners say, the public is not aware of this arrangement and how they can benefit from it.

But while these progressive initiatives are working for some countries, donors are also receiving the flak for not monitoring how their funds are being used.

“We need to change the current way of doing things if we have to stop the continued exploitation of the South by the North,” says a participant from Haiti.

There was a proposal for World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to set up a commission with mandate to find out how its funds have been utilised.

The Kenyan parliament on the other hand has been asked to set-up a debt monitoring committee that will report its findings to the public on regular basis.