Murang’a County Assembly approves Ksh9.6B supplementary budget

Murang’a County Assembly has passed a Ksh9.6 billion supplementary budget which will enable the executive to roll out various development projects.

Ward development kitty, bursary, health, and agriculture are the key sectors that have been factored into the budget.

In the budget, Ksh6.7 billion will go to the recurrent expenditure and Ksh2.7 billion to go to development projects.

Each of the 35 ward representatives will get Ksh8 million for development and an additional Sh1 million for the bursary.

In health, Ksh170 will be channeled to the Kang’ata health care program, Ksh120 million allocated for the construction of Kenneth Matiba Hospital, and Ksh271 million to be used in the refurbishing of various health facilities.

A further Ksh10 million will be used in reviving the milk processing plant and giving agricultural subsidies to the farmers.

According to Charles Machigo, the Chairman Budget Committee in the assembly, they scrutinized all the project proposals given by the executive and allocated adequate funds for them.

“We re-aligned the budget to the projects which the executive has proposed going in line with its agenda,” he said.

The chairman, however, said the assembly will keep a close eye on the executive to ensure the money is prudently utilized with no misappropriation.

“We had a thorough engagement with the executive and we expect those in charge of the various dockets to implement them so that the locals can benefit,” he added.

Kang’ata on county budget

Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata said the passing of the budget will enable him to implement the projects which he had promised the locals during the campaigns.

He also said part of the money will be used to pay the pending bills owed to suppliers and service providers by the previous government.

Kang’ata said he will be keen to ensure not even a single coin will be lost or diverted to other use not outlined in the budget.

He also said he is hopeful the National Treasury will release the funds to the counties in good time for the projects to be implemented.

At the same time, the governor said the revenue collected locally will help fill in the budget deficit pointing out that the automation of the revenue collection has helped the county bag more money.

“Our target is to raise Ksh10 billion locally and the money will go into various projects,” he said.