- Committee vice chairperson Cate Kalenga said the budget is for the people of Kitui and must respond to their needs
- MCAs thanked the committee for coming up with a balanced budget
Image: Dennis Kavisu
Kitui county assembly on Wednesday debated and unanimously approved budget estimates for the 2024/25 fiscal year.
Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations committee, Zacchaeus Syengo moved the motion.
"Mr Speaker Sir, the submitted budget for the FY 2024/2025 is proposed to be financed through the following; - Equitable share of Sh10.99 billion, Grants of Sh1.1 billion, while Our Own Source Revenue stands at Sh6 billion," Syengo said.
"It is important to note that the actual grants will be ascertained once the subject Bill is approved."
He said following the approval of the Division of Revenue Allocation which added Sh9 billion to counties, equitable share would increase to Sh11 billion.
This opens room for the county to have their budgets uploaded by the treasury at the earliest opportunity, providing for the disbursement and implementation of appropriated development programmes.
The health ministry received the lion’s share of Sh3.9 billion, representing 30 per cent of the total budget.
The Office of the Governor was allocated Sh2 billion, the Ministry of Education Sh1 billion while the county assembly was granted Sh1.1 billion.
Seconding the motion, Committee vice chairperson Cate Kalenga said, "Mr. Speaker, this budget is for the people of Kitui and must respond to their needs."
MCAs thanked the committee for coming up with a balanced budget.
They further lauded the committee for increasing road works including widening and dozing works which went from 5kms to 10kms per ward and road grading from 40kms to 60kms per ward.
The County Integrated Development Plan got a Sh40 million boost, up from Sh710 million. This means that every ward will get development projects under CLIDP amounting to Sh13.5 million.
The Ministry of Health got an additional Sh5 million for the ongoing construction of the Nzamba Kitonga Memorial Hospital in Kitui East sub-county.
The ministry has also been allocated an additional Sh3 million for construction and operationalisation of the Kalingile dispensaries among others.
Additionally, the ministry will get Sh4.9 million for purchase of Dialysis machines .
The Ministry of Water gets an additional Sh8 million for the construction of cluster irrigation projects, thus raising the total budget for the projects to Sh50.1 million.
Speaker Kevin Kinengo thanked the House for passing the budget and encouraged them to actively continue participating in Assembly business.
“Congratulations honourable members. Kitui county assembly, through your hard work and dedication to serve the people of Kitui, have for the second financial year running become the first Assembly in the republic to pass their budget.”
Since the upload process takes time, Kinengo said they “do not want our budget to delay even for a second so that our people get service delivered by their government and thus informing the expeditious work by the Assembly to approve the estimates this early".
He assured them of his support in ensuring the approved budget is fully implemented by the county executive.