The National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriation committee has set aside Sh2.5 billion for public participation on priority projects for the 2024/25 financial year.
The amount, which is outlined in the 2024 budget policy statement, is an increase of Sh500 million from the Sh2 billion which had been allocated for the 2023/24 financial year.
This emerged during a meeting by the Budget and Appropriations Committee led by the Chairperson, Ndindi Nyoro, held to discuss the framework for public hearings that will be undertaken from May 15 to May 18, 2024.
To enhance coverage, Nyoro said that the committee has also increased the number of counties to 20 in the 2024/25 financial year, from 16 in the previous year.
Members had during the meeting raised a concern on the delays in exchequer releases for these funds, which stalls or slows down implementation of the approved projects.
“The government had not released any exchequer for development by around February this year, but from then up to now, funds have been released consistently.
“Some funds could have been slightly slashed but were released. However, the road development funds have been affected because the requests had risen to Sh18 billion which is too high,” said Nyoro.
This year’s public hearings are expected to give an opportunity for the budget and appropriations committee to engage with members of the public, who are the direct consumers of government policy and interventions on the progress in implementation of the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) priorities.
The key priority areas that the public hearings will focus on include agriculture, universal health coverage, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), affordable housing, digital and creative economy, social services and any other matter of interest to the community.
Public participation in the budget making process in Kenya is stipulated under Articles 118, 201, and 221 of the Constitution.
The process gives valuable input to the approval of expenditure and revenue estimates through the Annual Appropriations Bill, but also serves as a tool to measure the country’s level of equity in development.
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