Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has received an unexplained KSh 2 billion extra budget as he wraps up his presidential term ahead of the August 9, General Election.
Overall, the State House budget has been increased from KSh 3.99 billion to KSh 5.88 billion.
This included the undisclosed budget, car purchase, fuel, and a KSh 205 million travel and accommodation increment.
According to the Treasury’s supplementary budget estimates presented to Parliament for review, President Uhuru’s State House budget has been increased by a whopping 47.7 percent to hit KSh 1.89 billion.
Of the KSh 1.89 billion, the State House car purchase budget has been revised to KSh 300 million down from KSh 10 million while the fuel allocation has also been increased by a whopping KSh 25 million to KSh 98.9 million.
Furthermore, the undisclosed budget item has nearly doubled from KSh1.2 billion that was presented and approved by the National Assembly prior to the financial year that started in June 2021.
An additional KSh 41 million has been channeled for machinery purchase as well as an additional KSh 20 million car maintenance budget.
Deputy President William Ruto’s budget was slightly increased by 1.1 percent to KSh 1.43 billion down from KSh 1.41 billion.
The supplement by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani further proposed a new budget allocation of KSh 31.6 million to refurbish buildings hosting ODM leader Raila Odinga’s office.
The State House budget increment is the highest among all ministries and State departments.
While citing the spike in expenditure on elections, COVID-19 (including the building of a vaccine manufacturing plant), as well as the Kenya Airways and parastatals bailouts as the cause of the revisions, the CS said the budget is an increase of KSh 126.3 billion only.
“The overall change in the national government ministerial budget, excluding the consolidated fund services and county allocations, from the original approved budget is an increase of Sh126.3 billion,” Treasury CS Ukur Yatani told the Business Daily.
