DP Ruto issues tough warning to all Cabinet Secretaries

Deputy President William Ruto has warned all Cabinet Secretaries against making additional financial demands through the supplementary budget once the national budget for the 2018/2019 fiscal year is read.

Even as the full naming of the full Cabinet by President Uhuru remain pending, the DP on Wednesday ordered all the serving CSs to conclude their budgetary requirements for the new financial year, assuring that no supplementary budget would be accepted once the national budget is passed.

“We don’t expect any member of the executive to introduce unnecessary expenditure once the budget is presented and approved by Parliament.

“We do not want unnecessary conflict between the executive and the legislature over budgetary issues,” Mr Ruto said on Wednesday at KICC in Nairobi during the opening of public hearings for the 2018/19 Financial Year Medium-Term budget.

This becomes the first time for the DP to instruct the Cabinet Secretaries amid a storm over picking of cabinet secretaries, which has derailed since their swearing-in on November 28, 2017.

Early this month, DP Ruto downplayed a perceived bad blood between him and his Jubilee Party boss, after he conspicuously missed the State House event to name nine Cabinet Secretaries. DP Ruto, through Social media, demystified rift reports and affirmed that it was “within the president’s constriction requirement to do so.”

Meanwhile, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said the government will reduce expenditure on non-core activities in order to fund key priority areas.

Mr Rotich said the government has adopted a raft of measures to fund its key policy while safeguarding a sustainable debt position.

Among the raft of measures to shore up revenues include expansion of the tax base to informal sector, lotteries, overhaul of the Income Tax Act to remove most of the tax exemptions, rolling out of integrated customs management systems to prevent concealment, undervaluation, mis-declarations and falsifications of import documents.

Others include implementation of the regional electronic cargo tracking to tame transit diversion, scaling up ongoing and routine activities such as pre-verification of conformity, benchmarking and auctions.

Kenyans have until the end of Thursday (today) to give comments on the budget statement before it is tabled in the National Assembly and the Senate.