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Kenya budgets for Sh1 trillion

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 9 – The government plans to spend close to a trillion shillings to finance its operations in the next financial year that starts in July.

Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta will on Thursday present a Sh996.8 billion budget, the biggest ever in the history of the country and Sh110 billion shillings higher than last year’s.

When Mr Kenyatta presents his second budget to Parliament, he will also be making a first as he proposes to use over a third of the total funds to finance development expenditure the first time in history the government will achieve the ever elusive one third target.

The government has allocated Sh321.2 billion (32 percent) on development while recurrent expenditure will take up the chunk of the budget spending Sh675.5 billion.

According to the financial estimates sent to Parliament on Wednesday by Mr Kenyatta the total estimated expenditure to be financed from Kenya revenues will be Sh604.6 billion while appropriations in aid account for Sh70.9 billion shillings.
 
Finance Ministers from other East African States will also be reading their budget on Thursday. Kenya is the biggest economy in the region and recorded a 2.6 percent economic growth in 2009 and the government expects it to grow by at least 4.0 percent this year.

It is hoped that Mr Kenyatta’s budget will sustain the growth momentum.
The Ministry of Education has once again taken the lion share of Sh139 billion followed by the roads Ministry which has been allocated Sh67 billion.

Ministry of Medical services will get Sh32 billion while the sister Ministry of Public Health shall get 16 billion. The Ministry of Energy comes closer with an allocation of Sh19 billion.

The government has however fallen short of the Maputo Declaration that committed the government to allocate at least 10 percent on agriculture with the finance Minister only allocating Sh18 billion.

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission has been allocated Sh5.3 billion for its activities which include the referendum vote slated for August. Other key beneficiaries include Police reforms with Sh1 billion, Parliament will get Sh7 billion for its operations. The Judiciary has been allocated Sh3.2 billion.

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Meanwhile President Mwai Kibaki will earlier on Thursday chair a special Cabinet meeting ahead of this year’s Budget.

“At the meeting the Minister for Finance will brief the President and members of the Cabinet on some of the highlights of the budget speech that will be presented in the afternoon,” said a statement from the Presidential Press Service.

During his Madaraka Day Speech, President Kibaki pointed out that job creation for the country’s youth was a top priority for the grand coalition government. He also outlined measures that the government will be taking to stimulate economic growth and help in wealth and job creation while ensuring equitable distribution of resources.

“The measures highlighted by the President are expected to be factored in the Budget speech,” said the statement.

President Kibaki has also assured the Kenyan public that enough resources will be allocated to ensure successful completion of the constitution review process.

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