Deputy President Kithure Kindiki addresses congregants during a thanksgiving service at the Full Gospel Churches of Kenya in Embu County, on January 5, 2025.
Treasury disbursements to the Office of the Deputy President have nearly tripled since the ouster of the previous occupant Rigathi Gachagua, the latest data on Exchequer releases shows.
The data shows that since Mr Gachagua was removed from office in October, Exchequer releases to the DP office have gone up by 164 per cent.
While the funding to the office amounted to Sh332 million in the three months to the end of September 2024, they have since shot up to Sh875 million over an equal three-month period to the end of December 2024.
Mr Gachagua was impeached by the National Assembly on October 8 and the Senate voted to remove him from office on October 18, events that saw him face frustrations that included the withdrawal of his security and being locked out of office.
“The Senate has upheld the impeachment of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua by the National Assembly and voted to remove him from office. The outcome of the vote, taken late in the night, is the first time in the history of Kenya that the holder of the Office of the Deputy President has ceased to hold office through a trial borne out of impeachment proceedings,” the Senate said in a statement following his impeachment.
The current DP, Kithure Kindiki, was sworn into office on November 1, 2024.
The data on the Treasury’s release of money shows that Exchequer funding of the DP office averaged Sh110.6 million monthly between last July and September.
Since last October when Mr Gachagua was fighting for his survival and was eventually ousted, the Exchequer releases shot up and have averaged Sh291.6 million until the end of December 2024.
Since Prof Kindiki was sworn in on November 1, the Treasury has released Sh586 million to the DP office, against Sh332 million released to the office over the three months Mr Gachagua served until the process to remove him from office started in October.
Since taking the DP office, Prof Kindiki has held events to meet leaders at the Karen office and made domestic trips to inspect or discuss development projects.
“Unless we sit down and discuss on a county-by-county basis, we are going to lose out because we want to carry the entire country along. We want to make sure that no part of our country is left behind,” DP Kindiki said during a meeting with Embu leaders last week.
All the money that the Treasury has released to the DP office through the first six months of the current fiscal year has been to fund recurrent activities such as payment of salaries, and administrative expenses for the office and to fund travel.
