The Government is seeking consent from the National Assembly for withdrawal of more than Sh950.8 billion to meet public expenditure for the next financial year with allocations to security agencies claiming the lion's share.
According to the Appropriation Bill 2014, whose debate kicked off yesterday in Parliament, the Government wants to be granted leave to spend Sh628 billion in recurrent expenditure and Sh322 billion for development purposes.
The Bill moved by Mbeere South MP Mutava Musyimi, who is also the chairman of the Budget Committee, seeks Sh73 billion for the Kenya Defence Forces, while the Kenya Police has been granted Sh66 billion, including an allocation for hiring of more security officers.
Still within the security system, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), will be granted Sh17 billion.
In their debate, MPs hailed the allocation to security saying it would assist the law enforcers in mitigating challenges in the country.
The legislators said with the allocation, the security agencies should not complain of poor funding when they are accused of failure to carry out their duties right.
"This is a good allocation to ensure that insecurity is curbed. Kenyans have been under attack and it is our hope that this huge allocation will go towards improving the situation in the country," said Minority Leader Francis Nyenze.
"We do not want to hear any more excuses such as that the reason we are facing cases of insecurity is as a result of insufficient funding. That should be a thing of the past now," added Nyeri MP Priscilla Nyokabi.
Nyenze, though supporting Bill, wondered how the deficit in the Budget would be bridged, saying although Kenya had successfully floated a Eurobond, the funds was still not enough.
Allocation to the Constituency Development Fund has been raised by Sh5 billion to Sh33 billion with the increment being meant to help improve public primary school infrastructure in constituencies.
The Bill also seeks to withdraw Sh13.5 billion for Free Primary School Education, a further Sh28 billion for subsidised secondary school education while Sh4 billion would be spent for free maternity health care.
Mutava said the money also included Sh2 billion for women representatives, while Sh1 billion each would be used for Ronald Ngala Utalii College and Maasai Mara–Narok Road.
The Treasury Cabinet Secretary had said: "There will be a deficit of Sh190.8 billion equivalent to 4.1 per cent of GDP, which will be financed by net borrowing from the domestic market."
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