Nairobi Member of County Assembly (MCA) on Thursday, March 11, slashed Ksh1.1 billion meant for development purposes to fund car grants.
The ward representatives during the assembly meeting approved a supplementary budget that reduced allocations to various county sectors so that they could be able to pool Ksh246 million to purchasing automobiles.
In addition to financing the car grants, the sector cuts will also fund Ksh19.7 million for the committee’s quarterly retreats and Ksh17 million for county assembly’s sports association tournament.
To finance the car grants, the quarterly retreats and the sports association tournament, Ksh500 million was deducted from the development expenditure allocation meant for the County Assembly Service Board(CASPB).
Additionally, Ksh600 million was slashed from an earlier allocation meant for the building of offices for the 122 MCAs and their staff. Ksh75 million was also cut from the Liquor Licensing Board recurrent expenditure.
“That in order to fully finance the transfer of Ksh246 million to cater for car grants, the development budget for the County Assembly Service Board be reduced by Ksh500 million and the recurrent expenditure for liquor licencing board be reduced by Ksh75 million,” Budget and Appropriation committee Chairperson Robert Mbatia said.
Speaking during the county assembly meeting, Mbatia defended the budgetary cuts saying that they had foregone the luxury of offices so as to be able to finance the car grants.
Nairobi County MCAs will be the first ward representative to enjoy the car grants promised by President Uhuru during the just ended county BBI debates.
This move will see car loans advanced to the 122 MCAs converted into car grants. Each legislator will get Ksh2 million.
In February 2021, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) approved car grants for MCAs and county assembly speakers.
