President William Ruto on Monday, August 5, signed the Supplementary Appropriations Bill effectively approving the plan to reduce government expenditure by Ksh145.7 billion.
The Head of State was joined by his deputy Rigathi Gachagua during the signing ceremony at State House.
The Presidency, which consists of the offices of the President and his deputy were among the state institutions that will see a significant reduction in expenditure in the 2024/2025 Financial Year at Ksh6 billion.
The National Treasury will see a budget reduction of Ksh7 billion while the transport sector, inclusive of road projects, will see recurrent expenditure slashed by Ksh17.3 billion.
Various other development projects under medical services will see Ksh6.9 billion hived off.
Ruto's assenting to the bill comes barely a week after the National Assembly, on July 31, approved it with amendments.
The sponsor of the Bill, Hon. Ndindi Nyoro told Parliament that on the revenue side, his committee, the Budgets and Appropriations Committee, had reduced the anticipated budget from Ksh2.9 trillion to Ksh2.6 trillion.
"The budget we are considering is a budget of roughly Ksh 3.84 trillion (or thereabout). If you look at the revenue side, we have been able to downgrade our projections. And other than the Ksh 2.9 billion we anticipated in the main budget, we will now be rising just above Ksh 2.6 trillion," Nyoro told Parliament.
The Kiharu MP further confirmed that the cuts had been made across all arms of government, the Executive attributing Ksh 139.8 billion, Parliament (Ksh3.7 billion) and Judiciary (Ksh2.1 billion).
"The cuts have been done in all levels of government. The cuts have been spread across the two levels of government.
"Even the county governments are losing Ksh 20 billion in their equitable share out of the realities that we face at the moment," he added.
The bill, however, confirmed that the Ksh18.7 billion budgeted for the confirmation of Junior Secondary School interns into permanent and pensionable terms had been retained.
"As a Member of the Education Committee we wish to confirm that the confirmation of 46,000 Junior Secondary School teachers will take place as well as the employment of 20,000 teachers," MP Timothy Kipchumba stated.
