Kenya will be unable to attend to missions that are critical to the safety of its airspace as well as negotiations of transport instruments following the scrapping of the foreign travel budget at the State Department of Transport.
The revelations were made by Transport Principal Secretary Mohammed Daghar when he appeared before the Transport Committee of the National Assembly over the supplementary budget estimates for the current financial year- 2024/25.
The failure to include the foreign travel item in the budget, PS Daghar says, also portends a challenge to open up the country to the rest of the world as negotiations of transport instruments require reciprocal visits to partner states.
“This means that the State Department cannot attend to any international obligations including air accident investigation missions which are very critical to the safety of our airspace,” said PS Daghar.
Already the Sh156 million that had been allocated for the purchase of aircraft accident investigation equipment for the country’s preparedness in case of such incidents, has been scrapped as per the supplementary budget.
The State Department was allocated Sh51.63 billion in the current financial year in the budget passed by the National Assembly last month but without the foreign travel component.
The budgetary allocation included Sh35.23 billion in development spending and Sh16.4 billion for recurrent expenditure.
However, the revised estimates have seen the state department’s global budget scaled down to Sh48.4 billion which includes Sh32.01 billion in development spending and Sh16.4 billion as a recurrent budget.
The reduction of the state department’s budget is part of the fiscal consolidation that the government undertook after President William Ruto rejected the Finance Bill 2024 following events of deadly protests by Kenyans over punitive taxation measures.
The Finance Bill was to enable the government to collect Sh346 billion on top of the Sh2.95 trillion in ordinary revenue as well as Appropriation in Aid (AiA) to finance the Sh3.9 trillion budget for the current fiscal period.
The recurrent expenditure includes grants and transfers to Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies (Sagas) of Sh15.97 billion.
The PS told the MPs that the reduction will impact the implementation of President William Ruto’s Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta) under the State Department for the country.
“This reduction will affect the implementation of critical activities for achieving the mandate of the state department including the Beta agenda,” the PS told the MPs noting; “the state department will be unable to implement the ongoing projects which may lead to accrual of litigation costs.
The Nairobi bus rapid transport (BRT) line 2 which had been allocated Sh1 billion had the budget slashed by Sh418 million with smart driving licenses losing the Sh140 million that had been allocated.
One of the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) stations under construction along the Thika Superhighway in this picture taken on August 17, 2021.
Photo credit: File Ngila | Nation Media Group
The Sh200 million allocated for the acquisition of ferries for Lake Victoria has also been scrapped, the same as the Sh332.6 million budgeted for the relocation of units at Kibera and Mukuru informal settlements.
The Sh90 million for the refurbishment of Transcom house, which houses the state department, Sh91 million for the Nairobi-Nanyuki Meter Gauge Railway (MGR) line and the Sh58.8 million revitalization of Leseru-Kitale MGR line have also been scraped in the supplementary budget estimates.
The state department is funded through five Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budgeting programme- air transport services, road transport safety and regulation services, marine transport services, rail transport and general administration, planning and support services.
The Malindi International Airport
Photo credit: File | Nation
Among the projects affected by the budget cuts include the Malindi Airport expansion projection which has lost the Sh147 million that had been allocated and the Isiolo airport expansion project Sh52 million.
There is also the Migorio airstrip Sh140.8 million, Kitale airstrip Sh70 million, Lapsset corridor resilience building programme and the Lapsset corridor master plan Sh56 million and Sh70 million respectively.
The Sagas under the state department include Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) and Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC).
The others are the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), Lapsset Corridor Development Authority (LCDA) and Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (Namata).
