President right to transfer Budget functions

Ken Opalo

This week the President transferred the budget office from the Treasury to the Office of the President (OP). This was a much-needed change in the management of the country’s finances. The fact of the matter is that Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich had proved unable to hold the line against runaway spending (and leakage) in various state departments. Shifting the budget office to the OP will bring political heft in the management of state finances. And is likely to streamline the cash flow management system in government.

That we needed such a reorganisation of the government is a sign that having an apolitical “technocratic” Cabinet may not have been such a good idea after all.