Education gets Sh431 billion in new Treasury budget proposals

Kisumu Girls High School students celebrate last week after receiving text books in January 2018. The Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission have moved to curb teenage pregnancies and indiscipline in schools. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Rotich says in the proposed allocations that the total budget is projected at about Sh2 trillion, with the county governments getting Sh315.3 billion
  • The Sh2 trillion estimate excludes the consolidated fund budget, which stood at Sh703 billion as per Treasury estimates published in January last year (2017).
  • Among the other major beneficiaries of the proposed increases in allocations is the Treasury, whose budget will increase by Sh20 billion.
  • The Information, Communication and Technology department is also among the big gainers with its allocation going up by Sh11.4 billion.

Education will get the lion’s share of this year’s budgetary allocations, according to proposals by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich.

The sector will have its funding increased by Sh56.5 billion to about Sh431 billion, according to the Draft Budget Policy Statement prepared by the Treasury. Out of this, basic education will get Sh31.8 billion to cater for the Universal Primary Education and the Free Day Secondary school programme.

Mr Rotich says in the proposed allocations that the total budget is projected at about Sh2 trillion, with the county governments getting Sh315.3 billion and the three arms of the national government sharing the rest: the Executive (Sh1.7 trillion), Parliament (Sh31.8 billion) and the Judiciary (Sh17.8 billion).

However, the Sh2 trillion estimate excludes the consolidated fund budget, which stood at Sh703 billion as per Treasury estimates published in January last year (2017).

SUBMIT VIEWS

The policy statement is currently the subject of discussions in Nairobi with the public and interested parties expected to submit their views at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.

Deputy President William Ruto launched the discussions on Wednesday with a warning to ministries to state how they would use the funds allocated rather than complain about the plans that have not been funded.

The final policy statement is by law supposed to be submitted to Parliament by February 15, meaning it will be among the first things MPs will consider when they resume sittings in mid-February.

The chairman of the National Assembly’s Budget Committee Kimani Ichung’wah told the ministries to use what is available as the country tries to reduce the budget deficit.

He also criticized Treasury for replicating targets over the years without any achievements.

“It is disappointing to note that some of the targets and outputs in the budget documents seem not to mean anything since they are continuously repeated as key deliverables over the years but have never been achieved,” he said.

MAJOR BENEFICIARIES

He added: “My Committee and the House expect to see targets and outputs that are tangible and quantifiable as this will form the basis of our approval of any allocation to a programme.”

Among the other major beneficiaries of the proposed increases in allocations is the Treasury, whose budget will increase by Sh20 billion.

Other beneficiaries are teachers, whose employer, the Teachers Service Commission, will its budget raised by Sh16.2 billion, while funding for social protection under the social safety net, which gives cash to the elderly will be increased by Sh8 billion.

The Information, Communication and Technology department is also among the big gainers with its allocation going up by Sh11.4 billion.

Others are the Interior Department, whose budget will go up by Sh6.3 billion and the Correctional Services, whose funds will be raised by Sh5.2 billion.

The Planning and Statistics Department could also see its allocation increase by Sh5.4 billion to Sh48.6 billion.

There are no significant increases in funding for the departments and ministries expected to deliver President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four objectives — growing the manufacturing sector, food security, Universal Health Coverage and 500,000 new homes by 2022.

BIG FOUR

From the statement,  plans for the Big Four will start with projects such as the Special Economic Zones in Naivasha or Dongo Kundu and the completion of Machakos Leather Park.

With the Universal Health Care plan, for example, Treasury says the focus will be on reconfiguring the National Hospital Insurance Fund and reforming the governance of private insurance companies.

This is supposed to culminate with an increase in the number of Kenyans under the National Hospital Insurance Fund from 16.5 million to 25.74 million. This will involve using the 37,000 banking sector agents, four banks, three mobile phone companies and getting 100,000 community health workers to recruit 20 households each.

LIMITED FINANCES

Mr Rotich says in the statement that because of the government’s limited finances, a lot of the projects will be done in collaboration with the private sector.

“In this respect, we shall be creating a High Speed Public Private Partnership (PPP) Unit to attract and engage the private sector on implementation of most of the projects under the Big Four Plan,” he says.

Treasury says it projects revenues collected to reach Sh1.8 trillion from the Sh1.6 trillion targeted in the current financial year.

The gap in financing is Sh588.5 billion and  it will be plugged by borrowing Sh214.7 billion from outside the country, Sh369.6 billion from domestic sources and Sh4.2 billion from other domestic sources.