NAIROBI: Every police station is expected to receive a trained dog in the new financial year that starts in July, as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Government takes the fight against the nightmare that is the country’s insecurity a notch higher. When he rises to read out the next financial year’s Budget next month, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich will also tell Parliament that the Government will hire an additional 10,000 teachers, 14,000 police officers and distribute food to 1.6 million needy people.
The Sh2.1 trillion Budgets will further allow the Jubilee administration to extend its care for prisoners, with the Government setting aside money to buy 54,000 blankets and 10,000 pairs of shoes for the thousands of inmates serving time.
According to Kenya’s most ambitious Budget yet, the Government has made its intentions to deepen pro-poor programmes clear by increasing the number of households under the cash transfer programme from 490,000 to 710,000. Mr Rotich is also expected to highlight plans to construct a National Employment Promotion Centre in Kabete, Kiambu County, to deal with the high levels of unemployment among the youth.
Taxpayers will additionally pay for two weather surveillance radars to be used by the meteorological department, and two aircraft for the police. Rotich will address the new policy in infrastructure dubbed by some as an ‘enjoy now, pay later’ policy which will see the construction of 8,000 kilometres of new roads over the next four financial years.
In 2015-16, the State Department of Transport intends to construct 350km of new roads through normal development allocation, and 3,000km under an annuity programme. Before announcing the new taxation measures the Government will use to raise the revenue required to fund the Budget, Rotich will likely mention the Government’s plans to supply sunscreen to 3,500 people living with albinism, and provide assistive and supportive devices and education scholarships for 4,000 persons living with disability.
A deeper study of the Budget shows the Government has rewarded the ministries and commissions that support its flagship programmes with increased funding.
