Has Treasury slashed 75pc of KNCHR's budget

National Treasury building in Nairobi

In the run-up to the repeat elections on October 26, the independence of Kenya’s public commissions was thrown into the limelight with both the Jubilee administration and NASA opposition coalition accused of interfering with the operations of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission IEBC.

Last week, Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) Vice Chair George Morara said despite a constitutional requirement that public commissions be independent, the government, through Treasury is often a stumbling block through denying funding. 

“I know there are also cost-cutting measures in government that have been introduced such as the IFMIS,” explained Morara during a TV news debate.

“This has also hampered our operational autonomy because sometimes the money is turned on by Treasury and at other times it’s turned off and it becomes difficult for us to do our work. Currently, about 75 per cent of our budgets have been cut and that goes to the core of affecting how we deliver our services to Kenyans.”

In the 2017/2018 financial year, KNCHR was awarded Sh450 million, a 5 per cent increase from Sh428 million last year. According to the quarterly economic and budgetary review for the first quarter of the current financial year, KNHCR has since received Sh112 million out of Sh113 million due for the first quarter.

Mr Morara’s claim that Treasury has currently cut 75 per cent of the budget for the KNHCR is thus untrue.

Treasury data further indicates that KNHCR’s allocation has been going up over the years with the commission fully absorbing its annual allocation.

In the 2013/14 financial year, KNCHR’s total allocation amounted to Sh263.6 million. In the next financial year it went up by 35 per cent to Sh356.5 million and in the 2015/16 financial year, allocation increased by 29 per cent.

Actual expenditure amounted to 263.1 million, 345.2 million and 432.7 million, representing absorption rates of 99 per cent, 97 per cent and 94 per cent respectively for the FY 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16.