House approves mini budget despite initial opposition

The Government obtained Parliament’s approval to spend an extra Sh34.5 billion to fund public operations for the next three months, after overcoming initial opposition to the supplementary budget.While contributing to debate on the Motion moved by Finance Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta, five MPs had opposed the supplementary estimates, citing the Treasury’s failure to factor in some withheld Constituency Development Funds.
However, Uhuru convinced members to approve the mini-budget, which contains extra funding for drought mitigation, implementation of the new Constitution and enhancing security to counter terror threats.
When the Motion was put to a verbal vote, those in favour won.
Earlier, MPs Abdi Nuh (Bura), John Mbadi (Gwassi), Martin Ogindo (Rangwe), Gideon Konchellah (Kilgoris) and Oyugi Magwanga (Kasipul-Kabodo) had called for the withdrawal of the supplementary estimates citing CDF arrears amounting to Sh5.1billion.
But when Uhuru rose to respond to the concerns, he clarified the arrears amounted to Sh1.8 billion.
"I give Parliament my personal assurance that this issue would be redressed once and for all in the upcoming financial year of 2011/2012," Uhuru added.
The minister said the Treasury would continue discussions with the CDF committee to ensure all other pending matters were put to rest.
Apart from CDF, Mbadi had added another twist claiming two allocations were suspect and could be linked to shuttle diplomacy and the anti-International Criminal Court campaign.
Mbadi said foreign travel allocation for the Home Affairs docket overseen by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka had shot up from Sh60 million to Sh260 million. He claimed the additional funds were meant to foot the bill for the shuttle diplomacy to lobby deferral of Kenya’s ICC cases.
National security
Further, he alleged Sh900 million additional funds to National Security Intelligence Service could be "meant for something the Government wants to hide from the country".
But Uhuru assured the House that the relevant parliamentary committee was free to obtain details on the NSIS allocation from the line ministry.
Internal Security Minister George Saitoti supported Uhuru, saying he had also explained well the security-related allocations meant to boost security services.
Other MPs backing the Motion said it would be insensitive to reject the supplementary budget because it contains extra funding to help starving Kenyans and to resettle IDPs.
Chairman of Finance Committee, Chris Okemo, however, regretted the budgetary cuts targeted development allocations that would undermine growth.
In total about Sh14 billion was shaved off from the Sh222.6 billion development budget meant for projects like building infrastructure.
Uhuru blamed the poor implementation of the budget on reporting problems by line ministries and delays in disbursements by donors.
—Reporting by Alex Ndegwa and Peter Opiyo