Kes. 4b for projects funding while 
Kes. 10b will be used for expenses

By Queen Mutindi

The Machakos County Government is set to gobble 71.4 percent
of its Kes. 14bn budget for 2024/2025 on recurrent expenditure.

Mr Kuyu

In what is out rightly an affront to the Public Finance Management
Act(PFMA), Finance Minister Mr. Onesmus Kuyu presented his budget to the Machakos
County Assembly and had the audacity to state in his notes that the budget was
within the dictates of the PFMA that stipulates that the budget’s development expenditure must not run below 35 percent.

Kuyu inaccurately states in notes to the budget that 30 percent
of the budget had been allocated to development expenditure, yet, indeed, out
of the Kes 14,392,185,634 billion, Kes 10,067,055,062billion will go to
recurrent expenditure. Unfortunately, no one in the assembly noted the glaring
declaration and as usual, the budget was passed, asserting the sorry state of
governance in Kenya that has triggered a revolution by Gen Z Kenyans who feel
the country is headed in the wrong direction.

It raises serious questions over the role of the assembly in
oversighting the executive arm of government although, like at the national
scene where Members of Parliament are bribed to pass illegal laws, MCAs too, are
usually bribed to pass legislation in the counties.

How else does one justify the passing of a budget that
leaves only Kes 4, 325,130,572 for development, yet it is highly likely that
much of the money contains budgeted corruption and a large sum of it may be
stolen by county mandarins who run county programs under Governor Wavinya Ndeti’s
Chakula Mezani, Pesa Mfukoni mantra. It is therefore unlikely that the people
of Machakos will realize meaningful change in the way they live.

The budget is prepared in the background of dwindling
revenue for the county with projections indicating that Machakos had collected
only Kes  1,051,979,26 b by June 2024. While the county projects to realize Kes 3b
from Own Source Revenues to fund the budget, it remains to be seen if the
projections will work, save for the projected Kes 9.5b from Equitable Share of
revenue from the national government.

What makes the revenue generation a herculean task is the
low figures reported from key sectors where the county is projecting to rake in
funds is from as at the close of the first half of the financial year. The
sectors are Building Plans Approvals (Kes 44,107,496m), Mavoko Quarries ( Kes
37,022,921m), Land Rates (Kes 35,612,844m), Bus Park( Kes 35,139,630m) and
Small Business Permits(Kes 24,252,600m).

Details in the budget show that within the Kes 10 b
expenditure plan, Wavinya’s office will gobble Kes 857,175,828m for recurrent
expenditure up from Kes 580m in the just ended year while Kes 59,830,059m will
be available for development funding, up from Kes 19m last year. The Anchor was
unable to verify how the governor will use the nearly Kes 60m.

The Anchor has published excerpts of the budget in this
article.

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