The Treasury more than tripled fund disbursements for the construction of roads and bridges over the six months ended December 2024, bucking a trend of deep cuts over two years.
The State Department for Roads received Sh26.37 billion from the exchequer, the government’s main account, in the review period, a jump of 239.32 percent over Sh7.77 billion a year earlier.
The increased funding came on the back of growing complaints over the deteriorating state of roads, with the State Department blaming underperforming targets on “slowed progress on contracted works” due to lack of funds.
The exchequer data show the roads sub-sector received the largest share of development funds in the six-year review period, for the first time since President William Ruto took power.
The State Department for Crop Development (Sh11.11 billion)) and Basic Education (Sh9.25 billion) took the largest share of project funds in the half-year period ended December 2023.
This was a time when President Ruto’s administration raced to ramp up the supply of subsidised farm inputs such as fertiliser and build classrooms for junior secondary schools.
Road development became a soft target for budget cuts under the Ruto administration, on the grounds that there was little room to reduce recurrent funding such as administrative and operation costs.
Upon taking power, Dr Ruto expressed shock at Sh900 billion in commitments for the roads sector in the budget he inherited from Uhutru Kenyatta’s regime (for the financial year ending June 2023).
“We have tried to cut it down; we have tried to cut some of the roads that have not started. But we still remain with about Sh680 billion that we have to manage,” the Kenyan leader said on May 14, 2023.
But the impact of reduced funding for roads, which had dipped to the lowest levels in more than a decade during the first of last fiscal year, was felt by motorists who decried poor conditions of major roads over the past year.
The cash wired to State-run road agencies — Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura), and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) — was the biggest in the review period since the half-year period ended December 2021 at Sh31.21 billion.
Funding for the roads, however, underperformed the target by 20.39 percent, or Sh6.75 billion, on a pro-rata basis given the annual development budget of Sh66.23 billion.
The increased disbursements for road projects, nonetheless, helped raise total expenditure on development projects for the six months ended December 2024 by 84.39 percent to Sh129.82 billion, according to the Treasury. This was the highest expenditure on development projects since the first half period ended December 2021 at Sh121.75 billion.
Economists say increased spending on development projects such as roads, water, power plants, housing, and electricity transmission lines helps grow economic activities.
Cement makers, steel manufacturers, contractors, and the thousands of workers employed in the infrastructure pipeline benefit from public spending.
