Floods that ravaged the country for the better part of the first half of the year cost the country an estimated Sh100 billion in damages.
The National Treasury says the damages vary from one county to the other but the destruction was extensive, particularly to critical infrastructure like hospitals and schools.
“The issues of the floods they did cause a lot of damage across the board. All the 47 counties had various levels of impact and the full cost is estimated at close to Sh100 billion,” Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi said.
The Prime CS was appearing before the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee at County Hall Monday evening.
Mudavadi appeared before the committee in his capacity as the acting Treasury CS since his designation to the portfolio by President William Ruto following the sacking of the Cabinet on July 11.
He was explaining to MPs changes to the Supplementary Budget 2024-25 occasioned by the withdrawal of the Finance Bill, 2024 which sought to raise an extra Sh346 billion through new tax measures.
Plans to introduce the tax measures sparked widespread protests prompting the President to decline to sign the piece of legislation on June 26.
Early this year, torrential rains visited the country leaving in their wake a trail of destruction including occasioning the deaths of at least 267 people.
The government said in its last update on May 10 that at least 188 people had been injured while 75 were missing.
In total, then Interior CS Kithure Kindiki said a total of 56,367 households had been displaced affecting approximately 380,573 people.
He said 1,967 schools and 62 health facilities had been affected by the floods across 11 counties while crops on 9,816 acres of land had been destroyed and 4,003 livestock left dead.
Mudavadi told MPs that the recovery process will be slower because of the financial situation the country finds itself in at the moment following the withdrawal of the impugned Finance Bill.
He, however, said the government is working on implementing austerity measures with a view to saving funds to plug the funding deficit.
“I do agree that we could do saving from the rental capacity so that we don’t keep on incurring heavy contractual obligations, that’s a good point,” he said.
