President William Ruto has gained Sh8.35 billion, making his office one of the biggest beneficiaries of the first supplementary budget even as the National Treasury cut funding to development projects by Sh106.28 billion to ease pressure on public coffers.
Supplementary budget estimates submitted to Parliament by the Treasury show the Executive Office of the President has been given a 36.2 per cent budget raise taking its total budget to Sh31.42 billion from the original estimates of Sh23.06 billion. The Sh8.35 billion includes Sh3.17 billion that has been allocated to settle Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) pending bills.
Mr Musalia Mudavadi’s Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary, which was established by President Ruto last year, has been allocated Sh751.09 million.
The money caters for general administration and support services at the office, public service performance management and delivery services and government coordination and supervision services which Mr Mudavadi was tasked with.
In the mini budget, the Treasury has increased recurrent expenditure by Sh92.97 billion to Sh1.496 trillion from Sh1.403 trillion, a 6.62 per cent growth while development expenditure has been cut by 14.86 per cent (Sh106.28 billion) to Sh609.06 billion from Sh715.35 billion.
Dr Ruto’s first mini budget has prioritised drought related interventions, including relief food, subsidised fertiliser, maize and fuel subsidies among other emergencies.
The budget for the State Department for Cooperatives has increased ten-fold after being added Sh19.71 billion taking its budget to Sh21.97 billion from original estimates of Sh2.26 billion. Cooperatives and MSMEs Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui last month revealed that the government had already disbursed Sh15.9 billion loans to millions of borrowers through the Fund by that time.
Dr Ruto aims to scale up the fund that was launched on November 30 last year to issue larger loans to businesses.
Treasury has also added the State Department for Crop Development Sh25.1 billion taking its budget to Sh66.61 billion from original estimates of Sh41.5 billion. The additional funding is to cater for the fertiliser subsidies. The Ministry of Petroleum and Mining has also emerged as a big winner with its budget increased by Sh41.74 billion to cater for the fuel subsidy programme that has helped keep fuel prices stable.
To combat drought, Treasury has increased the budget for the State Department for the Development of Arid and Semi-Arid Lands by 60.7 per cent translating to Sh6.32 billion.
The Ministry of Defence has also gotten a Sh6.46 billion primarily to support the deployment of Kenya Defence Forces troops as part of an East African Community (EAC) peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The State has also pumped an additional Sh17.6 billion to the State Department for Early Learning and Basic Education to support the foreign-financed Kenya Primary Education Equity in Learning and the Kenya Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project.
The biggest loser in the mini budget is the State Department of Infrastructure whose budget has been slashed by 21.4 per cent translating to Sh47.29 billion as President Ruto goes slow on former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s bug money projects.
Dr Ruto had earlier promised the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cut funding on Uhuru-era projects by Sh181.6 billion in the current fiscal year to ease pressure on State coffers.
Another major loser in the supplementary budget is the Ministry of Interior which has been given a 21.9 per cent budget cut amounting to Sh31.44 billion.
