Mutula faults budget for sidelining human rights

Written By:Glena Nyamwaya,    Posted: Wed, Jun 15, 2011

Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo said the budget estimates reflect badly on the government's commitment in ensuring access to basic social amenities and fighting graft Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo Wednesday faulted recurrent expenditure estimates as outlined in this year's budget. Mutula wants the estimates reviewed saying the Treasury's decision to cut down on Free Primary Education funding will compromise government's efforts of achieving universal basic education. Mutula spoke during the launch of the third state human rights KNCHR report which seeks to assess the progress of Vision 2030 as well as track success in the realization of human rights. He said failure to allocate some institutions funds in this year's budget raises questions on the government's commitment in ensuring access to basic social amenities and the fight against corruption. Mutula underscored the importance of promoting Human Rights in the country for attainment of the first Medium Term Plan (MTP) and vision 2030 but expressed concern over the low allocation of funds to the free primary education and the slum upgrading and housing development kitties. "I had to ask myself how do we realize universal basic education by reducing the budget for free primary education from 8.2 billion shillings in the current financial year to 7.9 billion for the coming year" Mutula wondered. He further decried lack of allocation to the political parties' disputes tribunal saying it would be hard to transform the country into a truly democratic state without such financial input. He observed that the report complements the government's important work by devoting significant attention to economic and social rights. "The preparation, publication and dissemination of this report provides an important opportunity for the Kenyan people to assess and track the progress made in the realization of human rights," Mutula said. He further noted that the 235 million shillings allocated for the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) was insufficient, adding that no money had been allocated to the prosecutor's office. "The prosecutor has not been allocated any money in the budget and one cannot fight impunity without proper functioning of this office," said Mutula Speaking at the same function, KNCHR Chairperson Florence Jaoko said a major challenge her commission faced in preparing the report was accessing information from government ministries and departments. Poor and slow response by public agencies and sorting out vast and complex data on various public programs posed a major challenged in our efforts to come up with report," she complained. Jaoko said the report seeks to find the public's opinion on some of the issues affecting the country, voicing her concerns on the recent budget estimates.