The National Treasury on Monday, January 9, invited Kenyans to give their views on President William Ruto’s first Budget for the 2023/24 financial year.
In a public notice published by local dailies, the ministry announced that public participation in the budget-making process will officially be launched by Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndung’u on Wednesday, January 11.
The three-day public hearings on the proposed 2023/2024 Financial Year and Medium Term period Budget will be held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC).
According to the schedule of the public hearing, public proposals on the macro outlook, health, and education will be heard on Wednesday, January 11.
On the second day of the hearing, the public will be expected to submit proposals on energy, justice, and commercial affairs.
The final day of the hearing will see the public submit proposals on the environment, public administration, and social protection.
This will be in accordance with Article 201 (a) of the Constitution and Section 36 of the Public Finance Management Act 2012, which requires public participation in the budget-making process.
The National Treasury kicked off the process of making the 2023/24 budget in November 2022 putting President William Ruto's estimates at Ksh3.64 trillion.
This is an increase from an earlier estimate of Ksh3.55 trillion for 2022/23 and mounts pressure on the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to aggressively widen the tax bracket.
Revenues are expected to shoot to Ksh2.9 trillion compared to Ksh2.82 trillion given in the final Budget Policy Statement of former President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2022.
President Ruto announced austerity plans in a bid to create jobs for Kenyans and cuts on government expenditure.
Most of his programmes are aimed at fast-tracking economic recovery and lowering the high cost of living.
“I have instructed Treasury to work with ministries to find savings of Sh300 billion in this year’s budget,” Ruto stated in his first speech as president to the National Assembly.
Following the announcement by the Head of State, Treasury gave further guidelines on taming ballooning expenditures.
“Further, it has been decided that all MDAs will rationalise the development estimates by removing all new projects, rationalising projects with implementation challenges, reviewing counterpart funds and scaling down on externally funded projects with absorption between 60 to 65 percent,” Prof Ndung’u announced.
The KICC meeting will also be addressed by National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee chair Ndindi Nyoro and National Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo.
