Projects under Kenya Kwanza’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) will take a back seat following proposals in the second supplementary estimate to cut development expenditure.
- •Development expenditure has been reduced by KSh 51 billion affecting key priority areas including over KSh 11 billion donor funding to the special global fund for Malaria, HIV and TB under the National Treasury.
- •Other reductions include over KSh 22 billion for water and sanitation interventions, over KSh 7 billion in the ICT sector, over KSh 5 billion for power generation and transmission and over KSh 2 billion for the agriculture sector.
- •The supplementary estimates proposes a significant increase in total expenditure and net lending by KSh 98.8 billion, representing a 2.5% rise from the approved expenditure in supplementary estimates one, bringing the total budget to KSh 3.977 trillion.
“The supplementary estimate 2 have adopted a similar trend with the supplementary budgets over the last three years, where fiscal consolidation efforts have been targeted at development expenditure,” notes Liason Committee led by Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss Shollei.
The committee expressed reservations over the credibility of the proposed fiscal consolidation measures, particularly the elimination of non-priority expenditures, as proposed by the National Treasury.
“This is given the significant increase in recurrent expenditure in the proposed supplementary estimates 2,” it added.
The budget cuts are in addition to the Ksh 105 billion in development expenditure that was rationalised in the supplementary estimates one for 2024/25. The primary contributor to the overall increase is an additional KSh 85.9 billion (3.6%) in ministerial national government expenditure.
