Ruto’s top advisers bill halves to Sh478m after Gen Z protests

The high-profile advisers, including David Ndii, Augustine Cheruiyot and Monica Juma, had a budget of Sh1.12 billion in their first year in office, which ended in June 2024, splurging the bulk of the hundreds of millions of shillings on salaries, travel and entertainment.

The reduced spending on advisers followed budget cuts that came after deadly protests led to the cancellation of the contentious tax hikes in the Finance Bill, which left a Sh177 billion hole.

This forced the State to announce several belt-tightening measures, including cutting the number of government advisers by half.

Before the cuts, the senior advisers and their support staff had a budget of Sh724 million for pay, travel and entertainment, shining the spotlight on their outsized role under the Ruto presidency relative to his predecessors—Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta.

This has been cut to Sh349.8 million.

While the string of advisers under Mr Kenyatta and Mr Kibaki preferred to operate in the shadows of Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries, the consultants attached to Dr Ruto have been overt and influential, with Dr Ndii being the poster boy of the realignment.

With their offices domiciled at State House, Dr Ruto’s advisers wield considerable influence on policy-making, yet they only answer to one person: President Ruto.

The advisers have been deeply involved in executive decisions, notably those touching on economic policy as Kenya models its presidential advisory role on that of the United States.

The rationale is that in presidential systems of government, which Kenya adopted under the 2010 Constitution, the President sits at the apex of policy-making, and therefore his advisers need to have executive roles.

But this has come with an additional burden to taxpayers.

The budget for the six advisory units sits under the policy analysis and research unit of the State House, whose allocation has grown manifold from Sh87.2 million in the last year of Mr Kenyatta’s presidency in 2022.

Mr Kenyatta had a loose advisory arrangement, with the budget for his advisers such as Mutahi Ngunyi not clearly spelt out in State financial statements.

Read:  Mbadi plans spending cuts in public offices to Sh1.72trn

The advisers will spend Sh144 million in salaries and perks in the year starting July, compared to Sh307 million in the year ended June 2024.

Under Dr Ruto, three of the six advisory units that deal with the management of the economy—office of economic transformation, council of economic advisors and fiscal affairs and budget policy— will account for 46 percent of the budget.

Dr Ndii is the chair of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisers, the most prominent and influential player among the six.

Its other members are prominent investment banker Mohammed Hassan and Nancy Laibuni, formerly of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra), a leading policy research and analysis group.

Aside from salaries, Dr Ndii’s team has been allocated Sh92.7 million to run the offices in the year starting July, a drop compared to Sh177.2 million in 2024.

They will spend Sh34.9 million on travel and entertainment compared to Sh106.5 million in the year ended June 2024.

The little-known Dr Cheruiyot is the senior adviser and head of the economic transformation secretariat, and has largely been pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

His office had the largest allocation at Sh98.5 million, with travel and entertainment eating Sh49.6 million.

The Office of Fiscal Affairs and Budget Policy, under the watch of former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, had its budget cut to less than a third. It will spend Sh31.5 million in the new fiscal year compared to Sh104.5 million in 2024.

Mr Rotich was tapped to the position in February last year after a court terminated his graft suit, which had seen him hounded out of office on accusations of fraud involving Sh63 billion tenders for two dam projects.

Besides the core team of economic advisers, Dr Ruto has also retained advisers on security, women's rights and climate change.

Former Cabinet Secretary in Kenyatta’s government, Dr Juma, heads the Office of the National Security Advisor. Her office has been allocated Sh49 million, up from Sh86 million.

The office of women’s rights adviser is under Harriette Chiggai and she has Sh45.4 million for running her office.

The Office of Climate Change adviser, under former Principal Secretary Ali Mohamed, has been allocated Sh15.1 million from Sh55 million.

→ [email protected]