The Committee of Supply on Thursday, 16^th November, 2023 approved the First Supplementary Budget Estimates Report for Financial Year 2023/24.

In the event that the Appropriations Bill is passed by the House, the Report by the Budget & Appropriations Committee (BAC) would have been approved in entirety or with amendments.  

While moving the Motion on the Report, the Chairperson for BAC, Hon. Ndindi Nyoro told the House that they had re-aligned Government resources to priority areas of high impact to Kenyans so as to improve the economy of the country.

“The Supplementary Estimates was necessary to importantly address debt repayment by provisioning money for repayment of debts following the increased rates to make Kenya attractive for capital inflows,” said Hon. Nyoro.

According to the Report, Departmental Committees held consultative meetings with Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs) under their purview. The BAC on the other hand, held meetings with the Parliamentary Service Commission, the Auditor General and the National Treasury to seek a common ground which informed its recommendations.

In its financial recommendation, the Committee sought for an approval to increase the recurrent expenditure for FY 2023/24 by Kshs. 90,717,383,737 in respect of the votes contained in the First Schedule.

The Committee equally approved a reduction of the total capital expenditure for FY 2023/2024 by Kshs. 24,515,810,722 in respect to the First Schedule.

While debating on the Report, Leader of the Majority Party, Hon. Kimani Ichungw’ah said the Estimates were coming at the backdrop of external forces such as Hamas and Israeli war that have hugely impacted on the supply chain around the oil and gas sector.

“This First Supplementary in this financial year comes in the backdrop of a very difficult time for our economy and indeed the global economy. The global economy as we all know is still in the recovery mode post COVID-19 and this had huge ramifications on growing economies like ours,” Hon. Ichungw’ah said.

During its afternoon sitting, the House through the Committee of Supply voted to approve the increment and reduction in appropriations allocated to programs in various Ministries, Department and Agencies in different State organs.

Some of the spending agencies that faced a reduction include the state Department for Parliamentary Affairs, Cabinet Affairs, Correctional Services, Devolution, the Ministry of National Treasury and Economic Planning, Sports, Culture & Heritage as well as Roads among others.

Some of the sectors that have benefited from the 1st Supplementary Budget Estimates include the Ministry of Education with additional funding to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), New University Funding Model (NUFM) and capitation of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) as well as boosting infrastructure in JSS whereby 16,000 classrooms are expected to be constructed through NG-CDF.

Areas that received an increase in allocation include the agricultural sector with additional funds appropriated to cater for post-harvest management to purchase dryers to assist mop up maize from farmers following a bumper maize harvest and the sugar reforms for payment of arrears owed to farmers among other priority areas.