How budget cuts will hit Kenyans where it hurts most

National Treasury CS John Mbadi at Parliament on June 12, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] Health and Education sectors will deal with budgetary reductions as preferred national government offices such as the Office of the President have their allocations increased in what experts term as misplaced priorities. Education has been allocated Sh700.9 billion in a Budget that has the national government's funding boosted to Sh2.54 trillion, with a provision of Sh150 million to procure and service a social media tracking system. A close look at the Budgetary estimates indicates that the Executive Office of the President, under the vote heads of general administration planning and support services, has been awarded Sh2,484,923,918 against last year's Sh1,850,109,831. Government Printing Services have been awarded Sh944.5 million against last year's Sh817.5 million while the Kenya-South Sudan Advisory Services will get Sh66,586,610 against last year's Sh62,749,245. Counter-Terrorism Advisory Services will get Sh635 million up from Sh500 million in last year's budget. Government Advisory Services is planned to get Sh1,246,063,045, up from Sh1,107,851,841. The total expenditure under the Executive Office of the President comes to Sh5.3 billion against last year's Sh4.5 billion, translating to an increase of Sh1.5 billion. At the office of the Deputy President, the Government Strategic Priorities and Interventions will get Sh74.8 million up from Sh48 million. The National Police Service (NPS)'s total expenditure vote stands at Sh125.3 billion against last year's Sh115.4 billion, with the Kenya Police getting Sh58.8 billion against last year's Sh55.6 billion. The Administration Police will get Sh1 billion more this year, from Sh25.2 billion to Sh26.5 billion, just like the Directorate of Criminal Investigation whose allocation this year is Sh10 billion, up from Sh9 billion last year. NPS could get up to Sh1.8 billion to finance additional recurrent expenditures as the office of the Inspector General (IG) will get Sh800 million more for police operations as the Deputy IG (Administrative Police) gets Sh60 million for the same. With Health and Education facing budgetary reductions, Kenyans, especially those who depend on public institutions for medical services and education, will have to endure harder times ahead. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will get Sh8.5 billion against last year's Sh9.3 billion allocation while Free Primary Education will get Sh22 billion against last year's Sh26 billion. In total primary education will get Sh26 billion against last year's Sh32 billion, a reduction of about Sh6 billion. In the health sector, Communicable Disease Prevention and Control will get Sh3 billion against last year's allocation of Sh4.1 billion. The Disease Surveillance and Response unit has been allocated Sh643,560,659 against last year's Sh459,118,032 while Public Health Services is expected to receive Sh1.3 billion against last year's Sh 6 billion. The Preventive and Promotive Health Services will get Sh10,083,646,131 against last year's Sh10,085,606,100 while Research and Innovation on Health will get Sh680,400,55 against Sh787,925,455 allocated to the department last year. Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu says the allocation of funds failed to allocate money to sectors that are in dire need of funding, among them education and health while fattening the national government's coffers. Mulu says the new Budget is only set to strategically bolster re-election chances for the ruling administration and deliberately underfund sectors that benefit Kenyans. "In any Budget, you will have the Executive pushing agendas to implement their manifesto and therefore moving more to the political side and getting a re-election. From my analysis, I think this is more of an Executive Budget. Most of the programmes will be supporting the government to get re-elected." The MP said that more funds should be allocated to the private sector to boost employment and resuscitate the frail economy. "Looking at the critical issues affecting the citizens, how much money has gone to the education sector? The money that touches the mwananchi alone is not much. Money benefiting mwananchi should be promoting a conducive environment for the private sector so that it thrives in this economy. If the private sector is doing well then it will employ more people and we will have more money in our pockets," he noted. Mulu further questioned why the Executive has been allocated a plump budget while the money can be appropriated to iron out the issues crippling the health sector. "The President and the Deputy President's recurrent budget is Sh11 billion and the money we require for UHC staff to be fully absorbed is Sh8 billion," he added. Experts have raised concerns over the Sh4.2 trillion to be spent in the 2025/26 financial year, noting that Kenyans are set to face a harsh economy due to revenue shortfalls. National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) Deputy Director Liban Guyo termed the Budget overambitious, noting that a spike in borrowing - domestic and external - and government service fees will be witnessed. "It is an overambitious Budget. Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is projected to collect Sh2.75 trillion and the gap will be bridged by borrowing locally and internationally. But KRA has not met targets before, so they should cast their net wide and focus on individuals and collect more tax," Guyo said. "We need to be cognizant of how the Budget can stimulate other sectors of the economy to contribute. If the government provides clear incentives through this Budget, achieving the Sh4.2 trillion target will be possible," he said.

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