President William Ruto has signed the Supplementary Appropriations Bill into law, which aims to lower government spending by Ksh.145.7 billion.
The Bill, which was examined and passed by the National Assembly on July 31, 2024, aims to achieve balance by cutting recurrent expenditure while protecting important essential expenditures in agriculture, health, and education, among other areas.
This follows the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024, which resulted in a revenue shortfall of around Kshs.344 billion and necessitated the realignment of projected expenditures to the altered fiscal framework.
The Bill proposes reductions to recurrent and development expenditures for all arms of government, constitutional commissions and independent offices.
The total reduction for the National Government is Kshs.145 billion which consists of Kshs.40 billion for recurrent expenditure and Kshs.105 billion for development expenditure.
“Out of the total Kshs.145.7 billion reductions, the reductions for the Executive is Kshs.139 billion drawn from various Ministries,” reads part of the Bill.
The Bill also proposes a reduction of Kshs.3.7 Billion for Parliament and Kshs.2.1 Billion for the Judiciary.
State House and the Deputy President’s budgets were reduced by Kshs.6 billion, Ksh.7 billion for the National Treasury, Ksh.6.9 billion for various medical development projects, and Ksh.17.3 billion for road and transportation projects.
Pension payments of Kshs.23.8 billion would go to key beneficiaries, while the National Government Constituency Development Fund will receive Kshs.13.5 billion.
The Agriculture sector will get around Kshs.20 billion to help farmers improve production and productivity.
Another Kshs.18.7 billion will be set aside for the promotion of Junior Secondary School interns to permanent and pensionable positions, Kshs.30.7 billion for capitation for JSS students, including those transitioning to grade nine, and Kshs.23 billion for universities under the Differentiated Unit Cost funding model.
Furthermore, Kshs.31.3 billion will be allocated to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) for scholarships and loans, and Kshs.17 billion to the University Funding Board for university student scholarships.
To support healthcare reforms and promote universal health coverage, the Bill has allocated Kshs.3.7 billion for the medical internship program, Kshs.4 billion for the primary healthcare fund, Kshs.4 billion for contracted UHC healthcare workers, and Kshs.4.5 billion for Community Health Volunteers allowances and equipment.
Officers working in security organs will also benefit from an allocation of Kshs.3.5 billion, which will increase their salary benefits.
