National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich unveils Kenya’s 2013/14 Budget

 
Thursday, June 13th 2013 

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich with Devolution Secretay Anne Waiguru [Photo:Martin Mukangu/Standard]

By Fredrick Obura
NAIROBI, KENYA:  The government on Thursday unveiled Sh 1.6 trillion budget under the theme transformation for shared prosperity.

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The budget to cover 2013/14 Financial year allocated health Sh34.7 billion, Transport Sh125billion, Energy 78.5 billion, ICT 9.5billion, and Education and Technology Sh130billion.

County governments and the Interior ministry were allocated Sh210billion and Sh108billion respectively.

In his presentation, Henry Rotich the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury said crime was an issue in the country’s economic development and deserved attention to bring down the criminals.
He said out of the Interior ministry's budget, Sh 67billion will be allocated to the police with Sh 4billion channeled to equipment purchase, Sh 3billion will be set aside for leasing of vehicles to make police patrols visible.
The Cabinet Secretary further stated that Sh1.2billion has been set aside for the construction of new housing units for the police and Sh 4billion for crime research.
The budget which is first under President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration set aside Sh8billion under the agriculture budget for irrigation and sh2billion as fund for agribusiness. “We realised that 70 per cent of household budget goes to food, the government is determined to increase food production to reduce expenses on food,” he said.
He said alternatives to introduce modern technologies in agriculture and increasing accessibility to farm inputs would be explored.
In the 2013/14 Budget the Judiciary and parliament received Sh16.1billion, and Sh19billion respectively for expansion of programmes.
In the education sector, President Uhuru's government allocated Sh 10.3billion for free primary education, sh2.6billion to school feeding programme, and Sh20.9 to free day secondary education and another sh52billion for laptops, content and capacity development.