By Wilkister Alao
President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed the 2019 Supplementary Appropriation bill into law, regularizing the spending of Sh161 billion in the current financial year.
The Bill, however, had not been appropriated by the National Assembly.
National Assembly speaker Justin Muturi, Majority Leader Aden Duale, and House clerk Michael Sialai presented the bill for signing.
The government invoked the provision on Article 223 of the constitution, which states that the government can spend money not appropriated by the National Assembly on emergencies, in crafting the bill.
However, some members of parliament fear that this provision could be abused by the executive, as the article was not meant to be a ‘cure for poor planning’, as Paul Koinange, MP for Kiambaa noted.
“This provision was not meant to give money to give for personal usage. These are ordinary operation costs and certainly not emergencies as required,” he added.
“It is not good to submit two supplementary budgets in one financial year. It should only come when it is beyond the control of the executive,” said Aden Duale.
The government came up with a supplementary budget barely a month before the Sh3.074 trillion budget was read, seeking to reduce it by Sh55 billion.
However, the supplementary budget II passed last week that reduced the development budget by at least Sh5 billion renders the first supplementary budget useless.
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