News
PM’s office to cost Sh700m
Prime minister Raila Odinga. Photo/FILe
Posted Wednesday, November 26 2008 at 21:29
The Government is set to spend a staggering Sh700 million to buy a building that will house the Office of the Prime Minister.
The revelation was among a raft of expenditures that were spelt out by acting Finance Minister John Michuki as he moved the Appropriations Bill in the House on Wednesday.
As he assured MPs of the strict discipline which the Government will employ in utilising the funds, Mr Michuki hinted that unforeseen risks and challenges were likely to affect the planned expenditure.
Economic prudence
“There are risks and challenges that may emerge and threaten to derail the planned expenditure of the estimates.
“However, we hope that financial discipline and economic prudence will sustain macro-economic stability and work towards poverty reduction,” he said.
Ministries that may require additional funds outside the Budget will be served through the Supplementary Budget that will be moved next year in March.
“Ministries that will ask for more funds to finance emergencies will do so through the Supplementary Budget,” he said.
Ending the search for an office for Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Mr Michuki said the Sh700 million will be allocated to the Ministry of Housing to buy Shell BP House from the oil firm.
“Sh700 million has been allocated to the ministry of Housing to purchase Shell BP House that will host the office of the Prime Minister,” he said.
Currently, Mr Odinga’s offices are housed at the Treasury.
Mr Michuki also outlined plans to deal with the escalating food crisis in the country by allocating funds to the ministries of Special Programmes and Agriculture.
The minister said Sh3.4 billion will go to the Special Programmes ministry for strategic grain reserves while Sh750 million will be handed to the humanitarian fund for the displaced people.
Agriculture ministry was allocated Sh150 million to cushion the country’s food security reserves under the programme “Njaa Mingi.”
The allocations of Sh3.55 billion to the two ministries came a day after it emerged that only 1.2 million bags of maize were left as strategic reserves.
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Submitted by jmax01Posted November 28, 2008 09:52 PM
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Submitted by isuni_yilu
BIG govt costs and really 1B is not a lot of money for a key asset. Separate the person from the office and you may not have such a BIG problem as it may seem right now BUT having said that we have a lot of these acquisitions that are in various states of 'in'completion! Brace yourselves for a PM's house also. We can finance all these from teh proceeds of the MPs taxes if the PM and President prevailed on their charges to pay taxes like all other law abiding Kenyans.
Posted November 28, 2008 12:35 PM -
Submitted by zait
is there any need to complain anymore?is there any need to riot or demonstrate? ofcourse as long as the leader and the organiser is an MP!our Kenyan life is centred and controlled by the MP.and it makes no sense who the Mp is,wote ni sawa!
Posted November 28, 2008 03:31 AM -
Submitted by normke
Seems as a country we tend to put in more effort towards making leaders more comfortable and having the opposite effect on those supposed to be served. With all the buildings in Nairobi, is it that hard to find an office for the PM? We seriously have skewed policies,or is it screwed up leaders?
Posted November 28, 2008 03:18 AM -
Submitted by Daniel08
Do these people actually think of the welfare of the common person? Raila, should be fighting tooth and nail to get those fund re-directed toward a more humane activity such as re-housing the poor and venerable slum dwellers in his constituency, or at the least provide them with clan drinking water, decent sanitation or health care. The quality of leadership in Kenya is beyond questionable it clearly lacking and deficient. We need to eradicate this kind of leadership and everything they represent. Mr Michuki, should not even be considering such proposals in this economic climate.
Posted November 28, 2008 12:05 AM
RSS
we have no say on this 700m and more will be spend regardless of what you say. once the coalition deal was signed we had to foot the bills to make our cry babies comfortable. this just one of them. think of how much more we are spending to run the additianal offices because of power hungry individuals who follow the colonial ideas of leadership.