Big Four Agenda to swallow huge portion of budget

President Uhuru Kenyatta. [File]

The Government has tabled its Sh2.8 trillion budget estimates largely aimed at financing President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda.

According to the 2019 Budget Policy Statement (BPS), the flagship projects will gobble Sh450.9 billion.

They include enhancing food security (Sh15.6 billion), Universal Health Care (Sh35.8 billion), provision of affordable and decent housing (Sh10.5 billion) and supporting value addition and manufacturing (Sh3.8 billion).

Some of the biggest winners from the estimates include education (Sh202 billion), national security (Sh190 billion) and energy (Sh68.9 billion). In security, the Government plans to spend Sh104 billion on defence and Sh37.7 billion on the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

“The implementation of the policies and programmes under the Big Four priorities is expected to  accelerate and sustain inclusive growth, create opportunities for productive jobs, reduce poverty and income inequality and provide a better future for all Kenyans,” states the BPS.

Under the estimates, county governments will receive Sh310 billion as sharable revenue, a drop from Sh314 billion allocated in the last financial year.

Treasury, however, defended the drop saying that notwithstanding the adjustments, the proposed county government equitable revenue share is above the constitutional minimum of 15 per cent.

Counties will also benefit from Sh61.6 billion as conditional allocations drawing from, among others, grants from the Government and other donors. The estimates must be submitted before April 30 (yesterday) in line with the budget cycle, culminating in the formal reading of the budget in June.

Treasury did not, however, table the Finance Bill which lists various Government taxation measures. This was in violation of timelines that required Treasury to submit the budget estimates together with the appropriations Bill by yesterday.

A court ruling last year barred Treasury from implementing any measures until the Bill is passed by the House. This followed a petition challenging a decision to implement various taxes before the document was formally approved by the House.

Also tabled yesterday was the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) Budget which is submitted independently, akin to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) budget that was tabled two weeks ago.

In allocating resources, Treasury has capped allocation ceilings for each arm of Government, with Parliament receiving Sh39 billion, Judiciary (Sh18.937 billion) and the Executive (Sh1.7 trillion).

To fund its budget, the Government has proposed to borrow from internal and external sources with concessional borrowing capped at 26 per cent, semi-concessional (8 per cent) and commercial (4 per cent).

On the domestic front, Treasury bonds have been proposed as the main source of Government financing.

The estimates were brought to the House a few weeks after the Parliamentary Budget Office warned that shadowy cartels in key Government ministries could torpedo the Jubilee government’s Big Four agenda, which forms the key pillar of the budget.

Government’s strategy

The policy statement outlines the strategy of the Government to continue implementing the agenda which was initiated in the 2018/19 budget.

It also listed various resolutions passed by the House to facilitate smooth implementation of the budget. Among them is an audit to establish the number of stalled projects to ensure they are given priority in implementation.

Other resolutions is the revival of the pending Bills closing committee to carry out an audit of all pending bills and the submission of an implementation plan of the Big Four agenda by Treasury.