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| President William Ruto suspends budget for wife to Mudavadi |
President William Ruto has said his administration will scrape budgetary allocation for the office of the First Lady, spouses of the Deputy President and the Prime Cabinet Secretary.
He said that going forward, the budget allocations for their offices will be removed.
During the Friday address, the President announced a raft of measures in a bid to implement and enhance austerity measures.
He said the government seeks to align expenditures with the budgetary implications of the withdrawal of the Finance Bill, 2024.
“Budget lines providing for the operations of the offices of the First Lady, the spouses of the Deputy President and the Prime Cabinet Secretary shall be removed,” the President said while addressing the nation on Friday.
Ruto further said the budgetary provisions for confidential budgets in various executive offices will be reduced by 50 per cent.
They include the office of the President, which consists of the budget for renovations across the government.
The President further suspended non-essential travel by state and public officers.
“No state officer and public servant shall participate in public contributions/ Harambees. The Attorney General is hereby directed to prepare and submit legislation to this effect and develop a mechanism for structured and transparent contributions for public, charitable, and philanthropic purposes,” he added.
The President said the government has struck a middle ground and proposed to the National Assembly a budget cut of Sh177 billion and borrow the difference.
“The additional borrowing will increase our fiscal deficit from 3.3 per cent to 4.6 per cent and will be used to protect funding of critical government,” he said.
Ruto said the services include the hiring of Junior Secondary School teachers and medical interns, funding the milk stabilization program for dairy farmers, reviving the stalled roads program and retaining the fertilizer subsidy program.
Others are to settle the debts owed to farmers in the coffee subsector capitalise the Coffee Cherry Fund and enable public sector-owned sugar mills to pay outstanding debts to sugarcane farmers for their deliveries, additional funding for the higher education new funding model and settle arrears owed to counties.
“In keeping with the enhanced austerity measures we have committed to implement and align government expenditures with the budgetary implications of the withdrawal of the Finance Bill, 2024,” he said.
BY THE STAR