The Kenya Conference on Debt and Development (KCDD) on Monday earmarked ministries that need budget cuts to tame Kenya’s spending which has led to the ballooning of the country's public debt.
According to the Central Bank of Kenya, Kenya's debt has increased from Ksh8 trillion in March 2022 to Ksh9.6 trillion in May 2023.
KCDD has resolved that as Kenya looks for a long-term policy to reduce debt, budget cuts would be introduced to ministries with devolved functions for short-term relief.
“The budget deficit will be reduced by reducing the budget expenditure in all areas of other expenditure and areas with an overlap of devolved functions,” it was resolved.
Should the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) which was part of the meeting take the resolution to parliament for approval, Moses Kuria’s Trade Ministry and Mithika Linturi’s Agriculture Ministry will be among the dockets that will be affected most.
Other ministries with huge cuts include Health and Education. Moses Kuria’s docket for Investments, Trade and Industry works closely with county governments in key areas of trade and development.
This includes trade development and regulation, including – markets, trade licenses (excluding regulation of professions), and fair trading practices.
The CS has been working closely with various governors to set up County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIP) and this will be affected in the instance of budget cuts.
On June 7, the Trade CS further told the country that the 47 Kenyan governors will take centre stage in the delivery and management of the Affordable Housing Programme.
Agriculture Ministry was allocated Ksh49.9 billion with a sizeable sum of that amount going to subsidising fertilisers in the counties.
The cuts will affect President William Ruto’s program to attain food security. Devolved functions in Linturi’s ministry include; crop and animal husbandry, livestock sale yards, county abattoirs (slaughterhouses), plant and animal disease control, and fisheries.
In the Health docket which is also being earmarked for budget cuts, the Treasury allocated Ksh141 billion for the ministry.
Most Health functions include; ambulance services, promotion of primary health care, licensing and control of undertakings that sell food to the public, and veterinary services are a reserve of county governments.
The conference's resolutions are in line with Raila Odinga’s sentiment made on Thursday, August 17, where he asked the National Government to devolve functions as outlined in the Kenyan Constitution.
“Today, fertilizers are procured and distributed by the National Government, affordable Housing is being conceptualized and implemented by the National Government, and the National Government wants to build markets and employ community health workers, all these are devolved functions whose monies should be released to the counties,” he lamented.
Raila’s statement was made a day after President William Ruto promised to transfer all devolved functions to counties.
"An analysis is being done on the funding that will accompany the transfer of those functions," he added noting the exercise would be done within 60 days.
During the KCCD, the National Assembly Public Debt and Privatisation Committee agreed to engage public members in simplified language on the factual status of public debt status and build the capacity to participate in responding to the eminent debt crisis.
