President William Ruto on Monday announced that the Kenya Forest Service will undergo a change in its financial system requiring it to fund its budget. This change is part of the ongoing financial reforms that his administration is undertaking.
Speaking during the pass-out parade of the Kenya Forest Service(KFS) inspector-cadets and foresters in Gilgil, Nakuru, the President directed that beginning next year, the KFS should begin running its own financial affairs.
According to Ruto, the decision was arrived at after KFS generated Ksh4.7 billion all by itself, away from government funding.
Additionally, Ruto disclosed that the government only gave the agency Ksh280 million, breaking a record of how initially the government had been using funds to run the agency.
‘’I have the undertaking of the Minister (CS Aden Duale) and the Kenya Forest Service that from next year, KFS will exit from requiring resources from the exchequer and they will run their affairs using their own internally generated resources,’’ Ruto directed.
‘’At the same time, because of the reforms that have been carried out, this year we only supported Kenya Forest Service to the tune of Ksh280 million. The rest of the Ksh4.7 billion budget is raised by Kenya Forest Service itself,’’ he added.
The Head of State also challenged other government agencies to follow in the footsteps of the KFS and generate their own resources to eliminate over-dependence on withdrawals from the Treasury.
‘’Congratulations to you and you serve as an example to other agencies to run on internally generated resources. It is therefore important that we develop capacity as I have said including the human resource,’’ he stated.
Kenya Forest Service will add to the list of other government agencies that have managed their own budgets, following keenly on their counterparts at the National Police Service(NPS).
In 2022, Ruto gave the Inspector General the autonomy to be in charge of the budgetary allocations, to promote the independence of the police.
Ruto also directed the management of the KFS to ensure that all tenders awarded are done in a transparent manner.
‘’All public resources in the forests will be tendered for in a transparent clear manner so that we get value for the resources that we have in our forest and also develop capacity for our industries,’’ he directed.
