Budget speeches more rhetoric than reality

By NJIRAINI MUCHIRA
The unveiling of the 2012/2013 budget marks the start of another vicious circle in which the Government raises the hopes of Kenyans, but ultimately crashes them.

Coming at a critical moment when the country is gearing for a transitional General Election after which the governance structures will assume an all-new setup, Githae did his best not to rock the boat.

But going by past experiences, finance ministers have in recent years become notorious in unveiling budget statements with lots of promises, but which are rarely implemented to the letter.

When Githae’s predecessor, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, unveiled the 2011/2012 Budget last year anchored on the theme of building resilience and sustaining inclusive growth for a prosperous Kenya, the popular consensus revolved around the fact that the Budget would solve immediate challenges whilst ensuring sustained economic growth.

But a year down the line, most of Uhuru’s promises have either fallen flat, have not been implemented or have ultimately been ignored as succession politics took centre-stage and the International Criminal Court (ICC) became a distraction.

In his budget, Uhuru projected the economy would continue on a positive growth trajectory building on the recovery path it had assumed following the 2007/2008 post-election violence. In 2010, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth stood at an impressive 5.6 per cent, up from 2.6 per cent in 2009 and 1.5 per cent in 2008.

According to Uhuru’s projections, in 2011, GDP growth was expected to register a marginal slowdown due to numerous shocks to 5.3 per cent. This projection, however, crash-landed as economic growth recorded a significant decline to 4.4 per cent according to the 2012 Economic Survey.

Unspent billions
Though the Government is wont to claim the substantial drop in growth was largely due to factors beyond its influence, yet again various projects outlined in the 2011/2012 Gudget where not implemented forcing several ministries to return unspent billions of shillings to the Treasury.

According to the 2012 budget policy statement, a staggering Sh102 billion allocated for various projects was not spent ostensibly because of lengthy procurement processes.

For instance, Uhuru allocated billions of shillings for various infrastructure projects but little has been achieved as far as implementation is concerned.

A case in point is the construction of the standard gauge railway line from Mombasa to Malaba with a branch to Kisumu.

While Uhuru allocated Sh3.3 billion as mobilisation fund to initiate the project’s implementation, controversies over the procurement of a contract to undertake a feasibility study have grounded the project.

This has even forced the Ministry of Transport to take over the project from the inept Kenya Railways Corporation.

“The purpose of the project was to reduce the ever increasing cost of transport within the region, facilitate faster and cheaper movement of freight and passengers and enhance competitiveness, while saving on our newly rehabilitate road network,” said Uhuru.

Uhuru also allocated Sh5.6 billion to the Rural Electrification Programme to facilitate supply of power from the national grid to 460 trading centres and 110 secondary schools, among other public facilities countrywide but these projects are yet to be implemented.

On the issue of oil and oil products importation that continues to gulp a huge chunk of the country’s import bill and is a cause of high cost of basic products, Uhuru revealed that taskforce had been constituted to review and advise on the best reform options to address the challenges associated with the importation, refining, storage, transportation and distribution of fuel.

To date nothing has been heard about the taskforce or its findings and recommendations.
But probably the area that Uhuru’s budget was centered on, besides infrastructure, was agriculture.

Uhuru committed about Sh100 billion to various agricultural projects ranging from irrigation schemes, fish farming, and provision of water to arid and semi-arid areas as well as livestock farming, among others whose object was to ensure food security.

A year down the line most of these projects are yet to take off and Kenya continues to depend on the unpredictable rain-fed agriculture for food production.

Jobless youth
In his budget, Uhuru also emphasised on the issue of youth unemployment and how it remains a time bomb if not addressed. To tackle youth unemployment, he allocated funds for various programmes like the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project, sports programmes, digital villages, business process outsourcing and increased allocations to the Youth Enterprise Development Fund.

But these programmes have achieved little in empowering the youth, something that makes them vulnerable to manipulation by politicians.