By Shadrack Nyakoe
Nairobi City members of county assembly have unanimously sailed through the budget summing up to Ksh. 39,363,916,279 for the financial year 2022/2023.
Governor Johnson Sakaja allocated three-quarters of the budget to recurrent expenditure Ksh. 27,451,422,267 while development expenditure was apportioned the remaining Ksh. 11,912,494,012.
Speaking to journalists at the Assembly precinct after passing the Bill, the MCA for Mabatini Ward Wilfred Odalo who doubles up as the chairperson for finance, budget and appropriation committee said that in consultation with the Governor they had slashed funding from various sectors peculiarly the insurance.
“We are remaining with six months to the next financial year and so we have slashed Ksh. 400 million from the insurance sector to actualize Governor Sakaja’s pledges to Nairobians such as the food programme for school-going children and bringing the City to its initial clean status. We have slashed the leasing and fueling of vehicles to benefit the people of Nairobi,” Odalo said.
Odalo said they have increased allocation for bursary to Ksh. 6 million from the initial 3.5 million per ward which aims at helping the needy students in the county to access education.
“Couple of weeks ago I was a victim of fire outbreak in my ward, today I am proud to say that part of what we slashed from various sectors will be used to fund the disaster management department. Ward development fund has been raised by Ksh.20 million to enable the MCAs accomplish projects in the wards,” Odalo added.
The MCAs asked the treasury to be disbursing funds to counties in a specified time frame for them to run their oversight role efficiently.
