Crucial programmes won't be affected by budget cuts – MP Nyoro

The chairperson of the Budget Committee in the National Assembly Ndindi Nyoro has sought to assure Kenyans that some vital programmes that had been factored in the budget will not be affected by budget cuts.

The MP has said as his committee prepares to review the budget to accommodate the reduced revenue following the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024, a variety of programmes will remain untouched as others are restructured.

He said the review will see the budget cut by about Sh177 billion which will affect some of the programmes planned by the government.

But some of the programmes, he said, are too vital to Kenyans’ lives to be affected.

Ndindi fingered the Sh10 billion that had been set aside to provide subsidized fertilisers to farmers that he said will still be implemented.

The fertilisers, he noted, will be provided to both maize farmers and cash crop growers such as tea and coffee growers to boost their harvest while cutting their cost of production.

“I want to assure farmers that agreed we have agreed with the President and all Kenya Kwanza leaders that some of these projects cannot be affected by the budget cuts."

“We all know that the funds will be reduced because of the reduced revenue and I don’t want to dwell on that because Kenyans told us to go slow a bit. They said we work with the funds available and we have heard them,” he added.

Further, Sh1.5 billion that was to be allocated to stabilise milk prices will be retained, he added.

The funds will be channelled towards New KCC and will ensure all milk farmers receive at least Sh50 per litre of milk sold.

Nyoro said this will come in handy during the milk glut occasioned by rains that leave milk farmers grappling with loss of milk and reduced earnings due to overproduction.

Another programme that will be factored is the waiver of debts accrued by coffee co-operative societies that make it impossible for them to operate efficiently.

Nyoro said the government is in the process of verifying the debts and that about Sh8.6 billion is needed to have them waived.

“We will ensure that Sh2 billion is included in the budget to start the process of waiving these debts so that farmers can continue working with their co-operatives,” he said.

The MP emphasized that despite supporting thousands of households in the country, the coffee sector is one of the crucial foreign exchange earners that help stabilize the Kenyan Shilling against the dollar.

As such, another Sh2 billion will be added to the Coffee Cherry Fund which will increase the kitty to Sh6.8 billion.

Started in 2019, the Coffee Cherry Fund was initiated to provide affordable funds to farmers to tend to their farms as they waited for the payments at an interest rate of three per cent per annum depending on their coffee production.

In January this year, the government started a minimum guaranteed returns programme through the fund to ensure farmers earn a minimum of Sh80 per kilogramme of coffee delivered to cushion them from fluctuating prices.

Nyoro also noted that Junior Secondary School teachers who have been agitating to be employed on permanent and pensionable terms will be considered.

“These teachers who have been 46,000 in number have volunteered for a long time and will be employed on permanent and pensionable terms,” he said.