How cash crunch for swearing in president was resolved
Treasury secretary Henry Rotich has prepared a mini-budget that will come with the cash for swearing in the President after tomorrow’s General Election.
The move comes after Parliament failed to provide the Sh384.25 million needed to inaugurate a President-elect in the fiscal year that began on July 1.
Mr Rotich last week said he would invoke a provision in law that allows the Treasury to spend cash allocated to other less urgent needs and regularise it through a supplementary budget.
“We will make available the cash for the expenditure item as need dictates and then seek post-approval thereafter,” the Cabinet Secretary said.
TOP UP CASH
The Treasury has followed a similar path to top up cash that the police and Ministry of Interior needed to finance election-related logistics and keep Kenyans safe.
The Assumption of Office cash is needed to finance a top-level committee that will manage the transfer of power in the weeks between the declaration of the winner and the public swearing-in ceremony attended by heads of State and diplomats.
State House had in March lobbied MPs to include the Sh384.2 million in the Presidency’s budget but the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Report released ahead of the August 8 election shows that the budget for the Assumption of Office is unfunded.
The Treasury is required by law to prepare and make public the document that shows expenses related to the poll four months before election day or April 4, but the Treasury made it public only two weeks ago.
MOST EXPENSIVE ELECTIONS
Kenya is conducting the most expensive polls in the region that has seen public institutions managing the polls consume Sh50 billion.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the biggest spender, is consuming Sh43 billion of this budget.
“The overall budgetary allocation of 2017 General Election is Sh49,981,666,599, composed of Sh27,319,189,140 (54.7 per cent) in the financial year 2016/17 and Sh22,662,477,459 (45.3 per cent) in financial year 2017/18,” the Treasury report says.
