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Kenya

Uhuru seeks Sh42b extra budget for Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 13 – Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday sought Parliament’s approval for a Sh42 billion shillings Supplementary Budget.

He said the extra funding was necessitated by the adverse effects of last year’s drought and the current El Nino rains.

Ministries had requested for Sh126 billion in this year’s budget but Mr Kenyatta said the figure had been cut to Sh4.6 billion for recurrent and Sh23.2 billion in development expenditure.

“We had anticipated drought and other contingencies while formulating the budget but not to the extent that we have experienced, this has in turn led to demand of additional funds to mitigate adverse effects arising from these challenges due to high budgetary constraints and the need to maintain a macro economic environment,” he said.

The Supplementary Budget has also factored in the national referendum and the on-going voter registration amounting to Sh5.6 billion.

Sh24 billion has been earmarked for drought related emergency expenditure and Sh4.5 billion for El Nino flood interventions.

Sh2.7 billion has also been factored into the Supplementary Budget to act as a shortfall of the National Census and Sh1.3 billion for purchase of excess maize for the strategic grain reserves.

The National Assembly, Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission are among the government institutions whose budgets were cut.

Grants from donors will be Sh1.5 billion and Sh3 billion towards the recurrent and development budgets respectively while Sh16.5 billion will be sourced from the domestic market to cover the budget deficit, said the Minister.

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In his contribution, Nambale MP Chris Okemo faulted the government for spending 97 percent of the budget on recurrent expenditure as opposed to only 2.6 percent on development expenditure and urged for a review of its policies to encourage growth and job creation.

“If the government talks about Vision 2030 and has put there benchmarks are we really going to attain that growth?” he posed.

The former Finance Minister rubbished the Kazi Kwa Vijana Initiative as a failure stating that it was poorly planned and implemented.

Gichugu MP Martha Karua and Ikolomani’s Bonny Khalwale insisted that the government has to curb corruption that has seen maize prices inflated to the disadvantage of Kenyans.

Ms Karua questioned whether the government was seeking funds in good faith citing that no arrests have been made since last year’s maize scam despite the World Bank reporting that Sh23 billion had been lost.

“We hear excuses from the KACC about no evidence, individuals are able to confess they made Sh85 million yet we are told there is no evidence; is there good faith in requesting money for public expenditure or are we being made to vote for money to corruption cartels,” she wondered.

The NARC-K chairperson regretted that the government was still dragging its feet in resettling the IDPs.

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