Questions raised over Sh1.3 billion allocated to Uhuru,Ruto

david nganga

June 6, 2017 12:21 PM

The funds have brought about suspicion with just a few weeks away to the general election.

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Questions have been raised over the billions of shillings allocated to Uhuru, Ruto with just a few weeks to the general election.

This comes after the Treasury allotted the Presidency at least Sh1.3 billion in the supplementary budget.

The money, expected to be spent by the office of President Uhuru Kenyatta and that of his deputy William Ruto in the next three weeks, will mainly be channeled to social programmes by the First Lady and the DP's wife.

These include a mentoring and rewarding scheme for pupils by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta and Rachel Ruto's women empowerment agenda. In addition, Ruto’s office will get an extra Sh626 million meant for training women on table banking among others.

The massive allocation of such funds to non-central programmes has with no doubt raised more questions than answers with just weeks away to the August 8 general election. It also put’s the government to task over its commitment to austerity measures.

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Treasury CS Henry Rotich has however made it clear that most of the additional funds had been spent and that the supplementary budget was to “regularize” spending.

"Most of the funds have already been spent because we at the Treasury had approved the plans so what we are doing now is to regularize it.

"You do not need to worry about the amount of time left (to the end of financial year),” Rotich said.

The two budget items under the Presidency are the most conspicuous in the mini-budget that increases overall spending by Sh48 billion and will be presented in the National Assembly today.

Mrs. Kenyatta was expected to have provided scholarships to 782 students under her social welfare project with Mrs. Ruto’s programmed not changing from 4,500 women in financial empowerment and 700 scholarships for needy students.

david nganga