Treasury asks MPs to approve Sh9.95 bn for fresh poll

Treasury has asked MPs to approve an allocation of Sh9.95 billion to the electoral commission to finance the repeat of the presidential election in a mini-budget that will result to a Sh22.26 billion-increase in the Budget for the current financial year.

The Supplementary Budget is a mix of allocations to fund the unprecedented repeat of the presidential election, measures to deal with the effects of drought as well as partial fulfilment of some of the Jubilee Party’s pledges ahead of the last General Election.

CHALLENGES

Overall, Treasury’s adjusted allocations will result in an increase of recurrent expenditure by Sh52.9 billion and a reduction of development spending by Sh30.6 billion.

“The overall cumulative changes under the Supplementary Estimates amount to Sh22.3 billion or 0.8 per cent of the original Budget,” Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said in a summary of the mini-budget tabled in the National Assembly Wednesday morning.

Mr Rotich said the mini-budget had become necessary because “we have faced a number of challenges with huge financial implications.”

ECONOMY

He listed these as: prolonged drought, insecurity, implementation of agreed Collective Bargaining Agreements, the repeat of the presidential election and shortfalls in revenue collection because of a bad business environment.

“Given that the economy has not generated new resources to finance the emerging needs, we are proposing to reorganise planned expenditure for the 2017/18 financial year in line with the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act,” he said in the document given to MPs.

Apart from the proposed funding for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission for the election, the security sector is also a major beneficiary as the Interior ministry has been allocated Sh4.62 billion, the National Intelligence Service Sh3.15 billion and the Kenya Defence Forces Sh1.8 billion.