Nakuru MCAs approve Sh163 million top-up budget to boost development spending

Nakuru County Assembly has approved a Sh163 million supplementary budget to go into development expenditure.

This was a reprieve for the MCAs, who had been pushing for the implementation of delayed projects in the current financial year.

Among the projects in the pipeline is the upgrading of roads, which will cost Sh86.5 million. There is also a land titling programme expected to gobble Sh25 million, and the physical improvement of Nakuru and Naivasha municipalities.

Procurement processes

Budget and Appropriation committee chairman Joel Karuri said the additional allocation on roads was meant to strengthen the Boresha Barara programme.

The programme was allocated Sh171 million in the 2018/19 financial year.

The money was meant to acquire tippers, graders, bulldozers, low loaders and excavators.

The machinery, however, could not be purchased in that financial year due to stringent procurement processes.

“The executive has not been able to acquire the intended machinery. That is why the Boresha barabara programme has not taken off,” said Mr Karuri.

Also to benefit from the top-up budget is the county’s agricultural sector development support programme II, which will get Sh21.9 million.

The department of health will get Sh39.4 million, which will go into buying medicine.

The purchase of ambulances, from equitable and conditional grants, have been increased by Sh57.5 million. But the purchase of cemetery land was reduced by Sh2 million.

Fund reduction

Governor Lee Kinyanjui’s office will also suffer a reduction of transfers to the County Emergency Fund Account by Sh22 million.

This means the emergency kitty will reduce from Sh57.2 million to Sh35 million.

The MCAs have also slashed the budget of the County Public Service Board by Sh3.8 million. Members of the board were forced out of office in January over complaints of irregular recruitment of staff.

Other critical components in the exra-budget are an increase in budgetary allocation for electricity by Sh50 million, that is from sh51 million to Sh101 million, and a reallocation of Sh3 million from the foreign travel kitty and Sh4.2 million from committee meetings which will now go into financing MCAs’ training.