All eyes will be on President William Ruto following his solemn promise to cut on budgetary expenses across all branches of the government to recoup Ksh.341 billion that was to be raised through taxation policies in the Finance Bill 2024.
In a media interview on Sunday, Ruto promised to cut on non-essential expenses in his office as well as enforce budgetary cuts on the Judiciary, Parliament, counties, and the executive.
Despite appearing to cede to the people’s will, President Ruto warned of dire consequences that the country will face for not passing the Finance Bill, which includes borrowing Ksh.1 trillion to keep the government operational.
According to Ruto, the expenditure in the said arms of government should reflect the country’s state of affairs.
One of the promises Ruto made was to scrap budgets allocated to offices of First Lady Rachel Ruto, and that of Second Lady Dorcas Rigathi.
The Billions allocated to spouses' offices
As it stands, the government will save Ksh.1.2 billion for dropping budgetary allocations to the two offices which Kenyans have termed as unconstitutional.
In the 2024/25 budget, the Office of Rachel Ruto was allocated Ksh.696 million, Ksh.100 million more than the previous financial year.
Pastor Dorcas Rigathi’s office was allocated Ksh.557 million, a reduction of Ksh.160 million from the 2023/24 budget.
In February 2023, another unconstitutional spousal office was unveiled – the Office of the Spouse to The Prime Cabinet Secretary. Held by Tessie Mudavadi, the spouse to Musalia Mudavadi.
The office sparked uproar from the public, with Mudavadi stating that the office is not funded by taxpayers.
"I want to state very clearly that there is no public expenditure that has occurred in the conversation around Tessie Musalia," he said.
The Executive budget
In his newly outlined austerity measures, Ruto also hinted at budget cuts in the executive, which received a large amount of allocations.
State House was allocated Ksh.9.4 billion, followed by the Office of the President (Ksh.5 billion), office of the Deputy President (Ksh.4.9 billion) and Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary (Ksh.1.1 billion).
The Ksh.9.4 billion allocated to State House is inclusive of the Ksh.696 million allocated to the First Lady. The funds are aimed at fulfil constitutional mandates, facilitating strategic initiatives under the Office of the First Lady, policy advisory, improvement of State Houses and State Lodges and administration of benefits for retired presidents, Vice Presidents and other designated State Offices.
Ruto said that the Judiciary and Parliament, which received Ksh.24.6 billion and Ksh44.6 billion respectively, will also face budget cuts. It is unclear how much will be reduced from these institutions.
The salary budget
Another avenue that the president committed to deal with was the ballooning wage bill by reducing salaries. He offered to lead the charge by having a reduction of his salary and the same to be done across government.
The president takes home Ksh.1.4 million gross salary, Deputy President Ksh.1.2 million and the Prime CS Ksh.990,000. MPs and Senators take home Ksh.739,600 while governors’ pay amounts to Ksh.990,000.
One of the grievances fronted by the Gen Zs included a reduction of MPs' salaries to Ksh.200,000 as part of the austerity measures. This means that the expenditure for MPs would reduce from Ksh.258 million to Ksh.69 million monthly.