Why you should be worried about Rotich's new budget

The Sh3.074 trillion Government expenditure plan for the 2018-2019 fiscal year is disturbing owing to the fact that the country is already deep in debt. One may be excited that the Government plans to spend a larger amount of money to better the lives of citizens.

However, we must be realistic, especially about the implications of this budget to the taxpayer. As the needs to be met increase, expenditure also tends to go up meaning poor Kenyans will have to pay more taxes.

But looking at it critically, there's no way the Treasury would allocate Sh3.074 trillion to expenditure expected to raise only 2.53 trillion at the end of the financial year. That would mean we expect more borrowing by the Government simply because the rate of consumption supersedes the rate of income generation. This is where borrowing from Peter to pay Paul comes into play.

It is sad that even after millions were looted at the National Youth Service, more money is being pumped into the institution, with no serious follow-up or action taken against suspects. Kenya's budget process is tedious, which makes implementation hard to track.

The supplementary budgets introduced towards the end of financial years bring more confusion to the budget process, making it harder to track what was actually spent by individual ministries.

I think public participation in budget making would increase transparency. Citizens want to know exactly how their money was spent. Counties are expected to get Sh372 billion. Yet it has always been hard to establish how the money is used because governors are always complaining of lack of funds