The government, through the National Treasury, is planning to bail out struggling Kenya Airways and other institutions in the financial year ending June 2022.
National Treasury releases supplementary budget estimates
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The Treasury’s supplementary budget estimates presented to Parliament indicate; fresh allocations of Sh26.5 billion to the national carrier and other undisclosed expenditures, Sh24.9 billion to fuel subsidy, Sh9.1 billion to prepare for the August General Election and Sh8.5 billion for Covid vaccines to the Ministry of Health.
For election preparedness, the Treasury allocated Sh8.8 billion to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and Sh324 million more to the Registrar of Political Parties.
In August 2021, IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati had noted a deficit of Sh14.5 billion in its allotted Sh26.354 billion on the National Treasury budget.
The allocation to Kenya Airways emanated from slow-moving projects, Treasury CS Ukur Yatani saying that the boost is to help the airline maintain its stalled planes, pay for utilities, salaries and also counter the effects of the pandemic.
The national carrier had been put up for nationalization to end the airline's ever-emerging tribulations.
Kenya Power received Sh3.3 billion to boost its restructuring programme.
Public universities are not left behind as they will receive Sh8.5 billion more to cater to their tuition expenses and for research. Major beneficiaries are Kenyatta University, the University of Nairobi, and Moi University.
The school feeding programme in the early education sector receives a boost of Sh3 billion while secondary schools and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) receive Sh392 million and Sh6.9 billion respectively. The TSC allocation should go toward hiring more teachers.
Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was allocated Sh200 million more while Sh330 million more would go to the Office of the Auditor-General to boost their operations.
Security agencies were not left out, the Defence Ministry got an allocation of Sh15 billion for security support and salary shortfall related expenditures while the National Intelligence Service (NIS) got Sh2 billion more.
The Sh24.9 billion fuel subsidy is meant to cover motorists from the global increase in fuel prices and which would generally ease the cost of living.