Nairobi — The offices of President William Ruto, Deputy President (DP) Rigathi Gachagua, and Musalia Mudavadi have been allocated Sh802.2 million for car purchases.

DP's office is the biggest since funding for his office has been increased to Sh290.8 million in the current financial year.

In the financial budget estimate for 2022/23, Gachagua's place of work had been assigned Sh90.8 million for vehicle purchases.

It means that the allocation for cars for his office has been increased by Sh200 million.

The allocations are way beyond the Sh100.8 million that was set aside for the three institutions, excluding funding for the office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary office.

The expenditures come at a time when Ruto's administration is keen on cutting unnecessary expenditures.

In September last year, the President pledged to reduce government expenditure by Sh300 billion with the aim to limit external borrowing and reduce Kenya's public debt.

However, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) warned the measures to cut government spending would ultimately be detrimental.

With the global recession, the PBO advised the government to inject money into the economy, and that cannot be achieved by reducing government expenditure.

Kenya's public debt crossed the Sh9 trillion mark for the first time in December, pushing the country closer to hitting the Sh10 trillion ceiling set by Parliament in June last year.

In June 2022, the National Assembly increased the public debt limit to Sh10 trillion to allow the government to borrow Sh846 billion to plug the budget deficit in the 2022/23 financial year.