The government has suspended Ksh 1.5 billion set aside as retirement package for former Vice Presidents and African Union envoy Raila Odinga (former Prime Minister), as the Treasury docket reviews the budget amid Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
With the government focusing all its attention on the outbreak, the Supplementary Budget tabled before Parliament sets to restructure Treasury's expenditure as the government seeks additional funding for the Covid-19 fight effort.
"The allocation was withdrawn because it was not a pressing matter in the current environment of Covid-19,” a source within the Treasury revealed in the report by Business Daily on Friday, April 17.
Odinga and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi were among the beneficiaries of the package, which was yet to be initiated but which would also have seen them take home Ksh 8.64 million per year, that is Ksh 720,000 per month lifelong pension coupled with Ksh108,000 fuel allowance per month.
They would also have been accorded 17 workers including personal assistants, chefs, accountants and secretaries.
Others who would have benefited from the package were National Assembly Speakers, Chief Justices and their deputies, in what was dubbed the Deputy President and Designated State Officers Act. This act was introduced for the first time in the current financial year 2019/2020.
President Uhuru Kenyatta assented to it after the March 2018 handshake. He had previously declined to sign it in 2015 following heated rivalry with Odinga.
Odinga and Musyoka's Ksh 200,000 monthly pension which accrued from serving as MPs for Langata and Mwingi North respectively, would have been scrapped off upon the release of the Ksh 8.64 million yearly pensions.
On Friday, April 16, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that 234 Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases had been confirmed in Kenya. Among the directives he issued was releasing Ksh 8.5 billion to the elderly, Ksh 500 million to persons with severe disabilities, Ksh 5 billion to the County Government and food relief to Nairobi residents.
Another major plan the government was considering was how it would revive the economy after the Coronavirus pandemic is curbed, revealing that the government was engaging the developed nations and several stakeholders to come up with various plans, dubbed Post-Covid-19.
"We are working towards formulating Kenya's Post-Covid-19 economic recovery plan and we will be engaging all stakeholders in engineering economic policies in light of this crisis. My team is paying attention to critical national matters that are causing families anxiety.
"The countries with the largest economies in the world are also in discussion with us on the issue of suspension of debts for a period, in order to allow us to spend more on combating Covid-19 and economic recovery. Our legislators should also consider proposals forwarded to them in the National Assembly," Kenyatta stated.
