MPs demand more funds from 'pro-poor budget'
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich during the Letshego Kenya Limited brand launch at Sarova Stanley on June 2, 2016. He will present the Sh2.2 trillion 2016/17 budget on June 8, 2016 in Parliament. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- It had slashed it from Sh29 billion, which had been sought by MPs through the Liaison Committee that prepared the Budget Policy Statement, to Sh24 billion, citing government austerity measures.
- Budget Committee Chairman Mutava Musyimi said the team would meet to agree on where an extra Sh1 billion would come from to make the total Sh28 billion.
Treasury was on Monday forced to scale up the budget for the Parliamentary Service Commission by Sh5 billion, following protests from MPs.
It had slashed it from Sh29 billion, which had been sought by MPs through the Liaison Committee that prepared the Budget Policy Statement, to Sh24 billion, citing government austerity measures.
The Sh2.2 trillion 2016/17 budget will be presented on Wednesday in Parliament by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, who on Monday promised a “pro-production, pro-poor budget.
After much pressure from MPs, Mr Rotich agreed to scale up PSC allocation from the Sh24 billion to Sh27 billion, which was Sh1 billion less than the figure they had agreed on.
Budget Committee chairman Mutava Musyimi said the team would meet to agree on where an extra Sh1 billion would come from to make the total Sh28 billion.
The MPs said they had already suffered the effects of a reduced budget, saying necessities such as printing paper and even toiletries were sometimes unavailable.
They also cited power outages earlier in the year, which were blamed on lack of funds.
In agreeing to give MPs Sh27.4 billion, Mr Rotich said he had “exempted Parliament from austerity measures that had affected other ministries”.
Mandera North MP Mohammed Nooru protested attempts by Treasury to slash foreign and domestic travel, as well as other expenses such as printing, advertising and new construction, saying it would kill Parliament’s work.
“Our work will be rendered useless if we cannot travel locally and even abroad to play our oversight and investigative roles. We will be short-changing the nation,” he said.
Mr Rotich added that all government departments had been advised to cut down on unnecessary expenditure such as foreign and domestic travel, in the face of a widening budget deficit, rising debt levels and tame recurrent expenditure.
In a brief interview with journalists after the committee hearing, Mr Rotich said the budget would target production and reduction of the effects of inflation, especially on the poor.
