Nairobi — The Office of Deputy President has borne the brunt of the budgetary cuts following a 50 percent slash of the entire budget with the docket allocated Sh2.7 billion in the revised budget.
Principal Administrative Secretary Patrick Mwangi explained that programs that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua spearheaded including coffee and diary sector reforms and the fight against drug and substance abuse will be curtailed.
"We are going to affect the operations of the programs that had picked really well in the coffee, tea, diary, avocado among other crops that we had started addressing. We are also going to face the heat on curbing social vices like alcohol that had taken steam," he said.
The Committee Vice Chair Dido Rasso advised Gachagua's office that he risks impending the progress made in the agricultural reform sector as well as drug and substance abuse fight if he fails to coordinate with other constitutional agencies.
"Are you looking beyond the horizon to seek the audience of NACADA, Ministry of Agriculture and other players like the coffee sector so that in the absence of resources, the agenda of his office is not impeded," he said.
Laikipia West MP Sarah Korere however insisted that the Deputy President should leave the mandate on curbing drug and substance abuse to relevant agencies like NACADA who have the constitutional mandate.
"The Deputy President has no business handling issues of agriculture and NACADA.Its either we scrap NACADA and create and office to deal with drugs domained at the DP's office.Or we strengthen NACADA to do what its should do,"Korere said.
PS Mwangi reaffirmed that Gachagua's office will not drop the ball on the strategic intervention in reforming the agricultural sector and curbing social vices through coordinating with agencies in the relevant ministries.
"A lot of these assignment we will continue undertaking them with the relevant ministries but we do request that the budget which may not be a priority at them.We can replough them to other critical sector within the office,"
Equally hit was the Office of the Spouse of the Deputy President Dorcas Gachagua which was slashed by 100 percent as the National Treasury withdrew Sh 557M allocation following President William Ruto directive.
President William Ruto committed to trim down on government spending on various sectors, including the Office of the Second Lady.
Following the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 which was poised to raise funds to finance the budget, the President insisted the country must leave within its means.
"The office came in to provide the missing gap that the people being rehabilitated were being followed up with programs and placed on job opportunities. We get concerned as public officers on how we are going to close that gap," the Principal Secretary stated.
Lari Constituency Buri Kangara questioned why the Office of the Deputy President spouse was receiving funds from the exchequer yet it wasn't even constitutional.
"The Office of the Spouse was it even constitutional because why were we allocating money if in the first place it was not constitutional,"Kangara said.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua domestic travel and hospitality budget has been reduced by 50 percent with domestic travel facing the highest cut from Sh 579M to Sh 220M in the austerity measures by the government.
The revised budget by the National Treasury has also slashed the entire confidential expenditure which was allocated Sh 320M.
Medal and Award budget
The Principal Secretary decried that the budget on medal, awards and honors which the office backdated to 2020 will be adversely affected following the budget reduction from Sh 500M to Sh 125M as it will cause persistent backlog.
An executive order number 2 of 2023 directed the re-organization of the government's mandate at the Office of the Deputy President to coordinate the conferment of medals and awards through the national and county government advisory committee in line with the National Honors act 2023.
MPs expressed with the harsh economic times facing Kenyans at the moment, the allocation on medal and awards was a mockery to the taxpayers urging the office to shelve the budget push on item.
The Committee Chair Gabriel Tongoyo insisted that the budget allocation on purchase of medals, honors, and insignia ought to be withdrawn in the current financial year.
"This issue of medal is actually becoming a problem; it took me time to justify and defend the budget on medals. We should have suspended this with the things going on in these countries. We should shelve or take it to the baseline," he said.
Lari MP noted that budget allocation on medal awards has remained unclear for years and the lack of clarity over the expense is not tenable at the moment.
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"I think its important that it comes out clear because some said we were awarding medals to drunkards. We want to know who are we awarding these medals," the lawmaker said.
Laikipia West MP called for the total scarping of medals and awards budget vote saying the taxpayers cannot shoulder the weight on the frivolous expense.
"It would my humble appeal that we reduce that budget to zero, scrap it completely. Remove every shilling that has been put there,"Korere said.
The development expenditure for the refurbishment of the Harambee Annex building under which received an allocation of Sh 320.4M has been completely cut with PS Mwangi lamenting it will hamper their operations.
"We inherited a dilapidated building but in the last year we have made it habitable. The complete removal will hamper us in terms of the office space and working environment,"
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