President Uhuru Kenyatta signs law releasing billions to Mumias, KQ

President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law the second Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2015 allowing the government access an extra Sh70.4 billion from the Consolidated Fund. The money raises the budget for the current financial year which expires in two days by a colossal Sh200 billion.

In that budget, there is Sh3 billion for Mumias Sugar, and Sh4.1 billion for Kenya Airways, which has been struggling in the face of the Ebola scare in its main market in West Africa, in what the National Treasury called “the emergency shareholder loan.” The President signed the Bill in the presence of Majority Leader Aden Duale and National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich.

The supplementary budget includes re-allocations of unspent billions as the Treasury seeks money to pay for the standard-gauge railway project, bail out Kenya Airways and boost geothermal power generation.

The bulk of the money is in re-allocations of the budget, but the overall impact on the 2014-2015 budget is that it rises from Sh1.232 billion to Sh1.426 billion.

This is the second supplementary budget that the House is set to approve this month, after it approved Sh50 billion, however, MPs are concerned about how these extra allocations in the budget will be funded. The Ministry of Agriculture also gets Sh8 billion to pay for the fertiliser subsidy the government gave farmers at the beginning of the planting season, and part of the money will buy the maize as soon as the farmers harvest their crop.

The National Irrigation Board is also set to receive part of the money.

The money for the railway and for the upgrade of the country’s airports, according to the second supplementary budget is Sh138 billion. The troubled National Youth Service will get Sh4.9 billion. The country’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, was given Sh1.7 billion and State House got Sh1.98 billion.

The Ministry of Interior also got Sh9.2 billion to beef up security.