Deputy President-elect Rigathi Gachagua should brace himself for a cash crunch as a result of budget cuts aimed at the second-highest office in the land.
Last Monday, Deputy President (DP) William Ruto was declared President-elect on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) ticket with Mr Gachagua. They received 7, 176, 141 votes (50.49 percent) to defeat Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party, who received 6, 942, 930 votes (48.85 percent). Mr. Odinga has rejected the results.
Following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to reduce the allocation for “Deputy President services” until the end of June 2023, the DP in the incoming administration will have less money until the end of June 2023.
The National Treasury allocated Sh1.7 billion for this vote head in the current fiscal year (2022/23), based on the Sh1.5 billion spent by the office in the fiscal year ended June 2022.
The cut in funding coincided with a rift between President Kenyatta and DP Ruto. For example, when the duo was re-elected for a second term in 2017/18, DP Ruto’s office received a total of Sh2.2 billion. The allocation would be increased to Sh2.7 billion the following year, 2018/19.
However, President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga’s handshake on March 9, 2018 resulted in an increasingly strained relationship between the Head of State and his deputy.
Treasury initially allocated Sh2.5 billion for the DP’s office in 2019/20, but reduced the amount by Sh63.6 million in a supplementary budget. In 2020/21, the DP’s budget was reduced by Sh897.8 million, leaving the office with a total budget of Sh1.53 billion.
The DP’s budget was further reduced by Sh25 million in the fiscal year ending June 2022, resulting in the office spending Sh1.5 billion, nearly half of what it spent in the fiscal year ending June 2019. The National Treasury allocated Sh1.7 billion in the 2022/23 budget, a Sh 207.5 million increase over the budget for the fiscal year ended June.
However, the budget for DP services for the fiscal year ending June 2023 remains significantly lower than previous budgets. The Sh1.7 billion represents 64% of the total amount received by the office prior to Dr Ruto’s departure from his boss.
The National Treasury proposed cutting the budget to Sh1.6 billion in fiscal year 2023/24, but whether that happens depends on the changes made by the incoming administration.
Unless the new government increases spending through a supplementary budget, the incoming DP will survive with the budget trimmed to clip Dr Ruto’s wings.
