President William Ruto faces public scrutiny and delicate juggling over his pledge to cut non-essential expenditures in his office, including travel, hospitality, and the purchase of motor vehicles to curb the wastage of funds.
Official estimates showed that the items listed as non-essential for the President’s office total Sh667 million— putting the focus on the size of chops that would be effected to justify his austerity promise while avoiding inconvenience to his day-to-day activities.
Cuts to travel expenditure may see Dr Ruto reduce local and foreign trips, while the planned refurbishment of his office in Nairobi’s Central Business District and the modernisation of the government printing press could also be halted in the rationalisation plan.
The pronouncement by the President proposing cuts to his office budget was forced upon by days of deadly protests in which the public demanded an end to wasteful and frivolous spending by the State amidst lean times caused by high debt levels.
The proposed cuts to spending by the Executive Office of the President are expected to precede further reductions in spending plans with President Ruto directing the National Treasury to pursue additional austerity measures to cut non-essential spending by Parliament, the Judiciary, and county governments.
“I direct immediate further austerity measures extending to the entire Executive arm of government. I direct that operational expenditure in the Presidency be reduced to remove allocations for the confidential vote, reduce travel budget, hospitality and purchase of motor vehicles, renovations, and other expenditures,” President Ruto said.
The listed spending areas had an allocation of Sh667 million for the financial year starting today, according to data from the National Treasury budget books.
Spending on domestic and foreign travel had been estimated at Sh10.4 million and Sh7.5 million respectively, a higher allocation compared to the Sh5.2 million and Sh7.2 million programmed in the budget ended June 30. The hospitality supplies and services budget was however lower at Sh84.7 million in contrast to Sh144.1 million previously.
The purchase of vehicles and other transport equipment for the Executive Office of the President would have however gobbled up Sh50 million from Sh27.3 million previously.
Other recurrent spending areas for the office cover printing, advertising, and information supplies and services; training expenses, purchase of fuel and lubricants, purchase of office furniture and the routine maintenance of vehicles and other transport equipment.
Proposed cuts to development spending by the office cover the refurbishment of buildings at Harambee House which hosts the Executive Office of the President and the modernisation of the press and refurbishment of buildings at the government printer which sits on Haile Selassie Avenue in the capital city.
The budget to refurbish the President's office in Nairobi CBD was set at Sh14.3 million while the upgrade of the government printer would cost Sh500 million.
The total budget to the Executive Office of the President had been set at Sh5.3 billion for the year to June 2025.
President William Ruto can implement the desired changes to the Sh3.92 trillion budget through the 1st supplementary estimates for the 2024/25 financial year having signed the 2024 Appropriations Bill into law on Friday as passed by MPs.
The President indicated that the supplementary budget would achieve cuts of Sh346 billion covering the hole resulting from the withdrawal of the 2024 Finance Bill.
The initial Sh3.92 trillion budget included Sh2.78 trillion in recurrent spending, Sh687.9 billion in development spending, Sh446.1 billion in transfers to counties including equitable share, Sh43.6 billion to Parliament, and Sh23.6 billion to the Judiciary.
The National Treasury expected to fund the budget through Sh3.3 trillion in total revenue collections including Sh2.91 trillion in taxes, leaving behind a balance of Sh597 billion to be plugged by Sh33.8 billion in external financing and Sh263.2 billion in domestic borrowing.
The withdrawal of the 2024 Finance Bill has however thrown a spanner in the works, requiring the exchequer to come up with a fresh fiscal framework including a lower spending target and/or new tax measures and reforms.
