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State House and the Office of the Deputy President are among the big winners in the supplementary estimates tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.

According to the estimates, the DP’s office had its budget increased from Sh3.5 billion to Sh4.2 billion while State House had its budget increased from Sh6.4 billion to Sh9.9 billion.

The Immigration department also had its budget enhanced from Sh11.98 billion to Sh12.7 billion while the Citizen Services department had its budget raised from Sh5.4 billion to Sh5.9 billion.

Arid, Semi-Arid land (ASAL) and Regional Development department had its budget increased from Sh15.9 to Sh24 billion while the Ministry of Defence’s budget was raised from Sh144.9 billion to Sh153.4 billion.

Other big winners were the various departments in the education sector and the ministry of Interior and National Administration.

In its report, the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC), which is chaired by Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, asked the House to approve an additional increment of the total recurrent expenditure by Sh90.7 billion and reduced the total capital expenditure for the development budget by Sh24.5 billion.

This will see the 2023/2020 budget increase to Sh2.438 trillion up from Sh2.375 trillion.

Development expenditure

It also asked the House to approve Sh1.7 billion spent under Article 233 of the Constitution which allows the government to spend monies that have not been appropriated by Parliament.

The committee, however, raised concerns over the reduction of the development budget on account of budget rationalisation particularly in the State Department for Roads and the State Department for Housing and Urban development which will lose a whopping Sh38.82 billion saying this reduction will negatively affect completion of ongoing projects and add to additional pending bills.

The report shows that the Cabinet Affairs docket lost Sh285.9 million after its budget was slashed from Sh903 million to Sh617 million.

Department of Transport also lost Sh2.2 billion after its budget was slashed from Sh60.4 billion to Sh58.2 billion.

The Department for Roads, on the other hand, had its budget cut from Sh250. 8 billion to Sh232.2billion. Both Transport and Roads departments are under Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen’s docket.

Housing and Urban sector lost Sh13.2 billion after its budget was reduced from Sh93.8 billion to Sh80.2 billion.

Other winners in the mini budget included the education sector which received the biggest allocations with the department for Higher Education and Research bagging Sh25.9 billion more after its budget was enhanced from Sh128.6 billion to Sh154.5 billion.

Department of Basic Education pocketed an extra Sh11.74 billion after its budget was raised from Sh147.8 billion to Sh159.6 billion.

Another big winner was the Teachers Service Commission which received an extra Sh19.8 billion after its budget rose to Sh343.6 billion, up from 323.8 billion.

Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions got an extra Sh4.6 billion after its budget was increased to Sh32 billion up from Sh28.3 billion.

The Ministry of Interior and National Coordination also got an additional Sh8.5 billion, raising its budget to Sh35.3 billion, up from Sh27 billion.

Reads the report: “The committee observed that the increase in recurrent expenditure will be financed by additional net Exchequer issues of Sh49.53 billion and an expected additional Sh34.23 billion in recurrent Appropriations in Aid. The committee raised concern over how such critical recurrent expenditures were left out during the budget making process which raises concerns over the credibility of the overall expenditure framework.”

The other losers include the National Treasury whose budget was scaled down from Sh128.7 billion to Sh111.4 billion, State department for Medical Services from Sh116.5 billion to Sh110.6 billion.