Kenyans have started experiencing good news news just after William Ruto's State of Nation address at Statehouse as well as his engagement with youths on X Space to suspends some government operation to reduce the expense as well as people to live within our means.
However today the Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung'u has instructed government accounting officers to reduce additional expenditures from their budgets in response to the Finance Bill's withdrawal. Furthermore, the CS instructed officials to completely eliminate the budget allocated for purchasing generators.
He further stated that, In the upcoming fiscal year, there will be no budget allocated for purchasing household furniture or institutional equipment.
"Further to the National Treasury Circular No.6/2024 dated 28th June 2024, limiting the spending of the FY 2024/25 to 15% of the approved budget till the approval of the FY 2024/25 Supplementary Estimates No.1, the Government will control expenditures by initiating austerity measures on the provisions for the operations and maintenance," read the circular in part.
These new directives issued by CS for treasury came Following President William Ruto's announcement of austerity measures for the 2024/2025 financial year.
During a briefing on Friday, the President suspended the procurement of new motor vehicles and the renovation of government offices. He cited the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024, which resulted in a budget deficit of Ksh346 billion, as the reason for these measures.
President Ruto also highlighted plans to dissolve 47 state corporations with overlapping functions to eliminate operational costs. Employees affected by these closures will be reassigned to other sectors. He further suspended the appointment of Chief Administrative Secretaries (CAS) and plans to reduce government advisors by 50%.
Additionally, budgets for the offices of the First Lady, Deputy President's spouse, and the Prime CS will be removed to redirect funds to other sectors, these are indeed goods as president Ruto meant whatever he said. Do you have confidence in Ruto's proposed austerity measures to reduce wastage and make life better for ordinary Kenyans? Feel free to share your views in the comment section.