President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed five parliamentary bills into law. These are the 2022 Supplementary I Appropriation Bill (Supplementary Budget), the 2021 Copyright (Amendment) Bill, the 2020 Kenya Deposit Insurance (Amendment) Bill, the 2022 Industrial Training (Amendment) Bill, and the 2019 Employment (Amendment) Bill.
The Supplementary Budget now unlocks KSh139.8 billion exchequer funds for use in fuel stabilization, drought-related interventions, security operations, election preparedness, and settlement of pending bills.
Here is a distribution of the funds from the supplementary budget per sector:
- Fuel subsidization programme: KSh34.4 billion allocated to cushion Kenyans from high cost fuel prices occasioned by the worsening global energy crisis.
- Security operations: KSh950 million for police recruitment to boost the number of the security enforcement officers in the country ahead of the August 9th general elections.
- IEBC: KSh8.8 billion to enable it to sufficiently prepare for the August 9th polls.
- Drought Mitigation: KSh1.4 billion to the Ministry of Defence for the Kenya Meat Commission’s livestock uptake program, and KSh1.2 billion to the State Department for Devolution for direct drought mitigation efforts. Other drought related allocations include KSh2.4 billion to the State Department for Social Protection, Senior Citizen Affairs and Special Programmes for relief food, and KSh0.9 billion to the State Department for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands for drought management activities.
- Teachers Service Commission (TSC): KSh6.9 billion to augment the ongoing roll out of the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC), and to cater for teacher remuneration, training and related expenses.
- The Ministry of Education: KSh2 billion for the construction of additional classrooms to ensure a smooth transition from 8.4.4 to the new system.
Additionally, the Supplementary Budget allocated KSh4.9 billion to the NG-CDF to ensure ongoing infrastructure projects in constituencies are completed as scheduled, and other social programs such as issuance of bursaries continue uninterrupted.
The Copyright (Amendment) Bill introduces a new formula in the sharing of revenues collected from ring back tunes. Section 30(c) of the new Copyright law provides that premium rate service provider shall be entitled to 8.5%, telecommunication operator 39.5%, and the artist or owner of the copyright shall be entitled to not less than 52% of the revenue.
The new Employment (Amendment) Act gives reprieve to job seekers by requiring employers to only ask for clearance or compliance certificates “upon granting an offer of employment to a prospective employee.”
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