Salaries gobble up Kakamega budget as health gets lion share

Kakamega County has proposed a Sh14 billion budget for the 2022-23 financial year. Recurrent expenditure and staff salaries combined will gobble up Sh7.99 billion, representing 53.45 per cent of the proposed budget.

Development has been allocated Sh5.78 billion, representing 38.63 per cent.

Health and Agriculture dockets will get a considerable share of allocation. The county will spend Sh4.53 billion on Health, translating to 30 per cent of the total budget.

Kakamega Budget and Appropriations Committee chairman Willis Opuka said Sh3.486 billion out of the Health docket budget will be spent on recurrent expenditure.    

“Ongoing projects started by Governor Wycliffe Oparanya have been prioritised. We shall finance all the projects captured in 2013-23 County Integrated Development Plan,” Opuka told journalists in Kakamega town on Tuesday.

The projects include the Shinyalu Tea factory, a maize processing plant in Lugari and a milk processing factory in Malava.

Several others under the Health department, including completion and equipping of the stalled 750-bed capacity referral hospital as well as Mumias and Shamakhubu Level IV hospitals, will be considered.

Construction of Butere Level (IV) hospital has also been factored into the budget.

The county government plans to construct morgues at Butere, Likuyani and Mumias sub-county hospitals. The Agriculture docket will get Sh1.58 billion, out of which Sh391.05 million is for recurrent and Sh1.19 billion for development.

The money will be spent on agricultural productivity across dairy, poultry, apiculture and fish farming as well as the recruitment of extension officers.

The Roads docket has been allocated Sh1.181 billion out of which Sh744.86 million has been earmarked for development. The funds will be spent on upgrading county roads, construction of bridges and connecting households to electricity. 

Education and Trade dockets will get Sh1.18 billion and Sh378.78 million respectively. The county government has prioritised infrastructural development in county polytechnics and ECDE centres as well as expanding school feeding programmes and scholarship plans.

Projects prioritised under Trade include open-air markets, modern kiosks, toilets, sports tourism development, and putting up an industrial Park in Mumias West. Others are jua kali sheds, development of the leather industry and loans to small and medium enterprises.

The Youth and Sports department has been allocated Sh816.76 million which will go towards the construction of gender-based violence and children rescue centres, the construction of houses for the vulnerable and the development of youth incubation centres.

Part of the money will be spent on the completion of the Bukhungu Stadium Phase II project.

Water, Environment and Natural Resources will receive Sh726.44 million to increase access to clean drinking water, rehabilitation and expansion of water supply schemes, drilling of solar-powered boreholes and reforestation programmes.