Civil society question huge allocation to spy agency

By Morris Aron

Security concerns ahead of the General Elections and unemployment among the youth dominated presentations to the Parliamentary Budget Committee on its first day of sitting.

The youth also questioned their exclusion in policy making processes. Presentations made by Nairobi Central Business District Association (NCBDA) and civil society groups including Kituo Cha Sheria, Plan International, Centre for Study of Adolescents called for an increase and rationalisation of budgetary allocations for security organs and health.

Of key concern was the allocation of Sh34 billion to the National Security Intelligence Service while the National Police Commission had only Sh300 million.

NCBDA Chairman Timothy Muriuki, questioned the allocation of more money to the spy agency, whose work is ‘to gather information’ as opposed to the police force who are on the ground.

“This is something that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency concern before the final budget allocations are drawn up. Without adequate security we cannot talk of job creation and employment,” he said.

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It was also noted at the sitting there were more than 6,000 police officers assigned to protect very important people, a job that can be done by the National Youth Service.

Muriuki also called on the Commission for Revenue Allocation to factor in the ‘one million people who enter Nairobi on a daily basis and retire to the satellite towns at the end of the day’ when deciding on the final amount of money to allocated to the capital city.

Priscilla Nyokabi Kituo Cha Sheria executive director called for more money to fund the operations and re-alignment National Youth Council. “National Youth Council (NYC) members demand for the implementation of the NYC Act and Sh1 billion be allocated to fund its operations,” said Nyokabi.

The implementation and activation of NYC Act of 2009 is seen as a way to actively get the voices of the youth in policy-making processes.

Other issues that dominated budget committee public hearing were the need to curb budgetary allocation wastages through corruption by creation of a taskforce to oversee the procurement processes in all government ministries.