President William Ruto has signed the Supplementary Appropriations Bill, into law which plans to reduce government expenditure by Ksh.145.7 billion.
The Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly on 31 July 2024, seeks to reduce recurrent expenditure while safeguarding critical essential expenditure in the agriculture, health and education sectors among others.
This comes after the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 which caused a revenue shortfall of Ksh.344 billion, prompting the need to realign planned expenditures to the revised fiscal framework.
The Bill proposes reductions to recurrent and development expenditures for all arms of government, constitutional commissions and independent offices.
“Out of the total Ksh.145.7 billion reductions, the reductions for the Executive is Ksh.139 billion drawn from various Ministries,” read the Bill.
The Bill also proposes a reduction of Ksh.3.7 billion for parliament and Ksh.2.1 billion for the Judiciary.
State house and the Deputy President got an expenditure reduction of Ksh.6 billion, Ksh.7 billion for the National Treasury, Ksh.6.9 billion for various development projects under medical services and Ksh.17.3 billion for road projects and transport sector projects.
Pension payments will get Ksh.23.8 billion, and the National Government Constituency Development Fund will get Ksh.13.5 billion.
Ksh.20 billion will be allocated to the agriculture sector which will help support farmers in enhancing production and productivity.
Junior Secondary School interns will be allocated Ksh.18.7 billion for the promotion into permanent and pensionable terms, Ksh.30.7 billion for capitation for JSS students including those transitioning to grade nine and Ksh.23 billion to universities for the Differentiated Unit Cost funding model.
The Bill further stated that Ksh.31.3 billion will be sent to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) for scholarships and loans and Ksh.17 billion to the University Funding Board for scholarships to university students.
To support the reforms in the healthcare sector and promote universal health coverage, the Bill has appropriated Ksh.3.7 billion for the medical internship program, Ksh.4 billion for the primary healthcare fund, Ksh.4 billion for contracted UHC healthcare workers and Ksh.4.5 billion for Community Health Volunteers allowances and equipment.
Ksh.3.5 billion will be allocated to officers working in security organs. This will enhance their remuneration perks.
