Rotich’s budget unrealistic and overreaching in many respects

It was big, bold and ambitious! The 2016/17 budget was the largest ever, with a planned expenditure of Sh2.3 trillion. Budget making by the Treasury has evolved into an art in official deceit. We build an enormous, feel-good plan that glosses our over the near stagnant revenues and ballooning debt drowning the nation. Treasury no longer struggles to plug the financing gap; it merely writes it off to debt.

Each year, we craft a lofty plan without reviewing how we performed in the previous year. In 2015, government operations ground to a halt barely two months after the Sh2.1 trillion budget was approved by the National Assembly. There was a massive cash crunch; salaries could not be paid, exchequer releases to ministries dried up, transfers to county governments delayed; and the Treasury was in the red! Reason given? There were revenue shortfalls, and some large debt redemptions! How did the Treasury miss these projections in the budget?