The government has increased funding for national security institutions to firm up the sector’s preparedness for the forthcoming general elections in August.
National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani, while reading his budget statement in Parliament on Thursday, said Sh317.8 billion has been allocated to the police and prison services, defence and the National Intelligence Services.
This amount is a whopping Sh23.8 billion rise from the Sh294 billion allocated for the same departments in the 2021/2022 financial year.
Noting that the security of the nation remained paramount and must be maintained to safeguard considerable development gains, CS Yatani explained how the colossal amount will be shared amongst the stakeholders in the security sector.
“Mr Speaker, the proposed allocations include Sh128.4 billion for defence, Sh46.4 billion for the NIS, Sh102.2 billion for police and prisons services, Sh10.7 billon for leasing of police vehicles, Sh1 billion for the police modernisation programme, Sh1 billion for National Communication and Surveillance System and Sh335 million for the improvement of the national forensic laboratory in the country,” he said.
The military and NIS allocations increased this year by Sh8.6 billion and Sh3.9 billion respectively with the two entities having received Sh119.8 billion (defence) and Sh42.5 billion (NIS) in the previous financial year.
But the police and prisons services budgets decreased by Sh8.4 billion from last year’s Sh110.6 billion to the current 102.2 billion.
The National Treasury also included further allocations to the National Security including Sh4.8 billion for the insurance of the police and prison services, another Sh2.3 billion for group personal insurance for police and prisons services as well as an extra Sh1 billion for the National Integrated Management System.
