National Treasury CS John Mbadi has said that Kenya is currently running an expensive government.
Speaking on Citizen TV, Mbadi said this is because salaries in the national government alone take up to Sh960 billion a year.
He said soon, this will be upwards of the Sh1 trillion mark.
The Cabinet Secretary said the country is also servicing loans of about Sh1.1 trillion yearly.
He said this against a yearly revenue collection of about Sh2.5 trillion, and that is the reason the Kenyan economy is sometimes slow.
“We have a very expensive government. Today, we are paying Sh80 billion per month at the national government level for salaries. Per year it is Sh960 billion, it's going to a trillion shillings and we are collecting Sh2.5 trillion and we are spending on loan repayment about Sh1.1 trillion so where do you get money for development? That is why sometimes our economy is sluggish,” Mbadi said.
He noted that what has kept Kenya’s development ongoing is the grants from some of the development partners.
He termed this support from partners as just luck.
“We are just lucky that somehow we have development partners who pump in some money, some in the form of grants and they help us to grow.”
Mbadi insisted that it is time Kenyans had a conversation on whether the current form of government is what they want.
“There must be a conversation. I've been a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee in the National Assembly for 15 years and I remember during the time of Mutava Musyimi I filed a question to my committee asking for the coasting of the government and former Auditor General Edward Ouko led a team that compiled a very detailed report to Parliament. How I wish we could pick that report again and Kenyans have a conversation on whether we need the kind of government we have today,” he said.
After the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution, Kenya adopted a structure of government that allows power to be held on two levels; the national level and the county level.
These two levels run independently even though funding for countries comes from the National Treasury.
Mbadi also said the 47 devolved units have become unsustainable for the government owing to the ballooning wage bill.
He said the eight provinces before the formation of the 2010 Constitution would address the current financial crisis affecting the country.
“47 counties each one with full-fledged government, a governor who is the mini president with a deputy who is running mate, and struggling to find work to do and then you have ministers, all of them went for 10 which is the maximum, we have Chief Officers, more than 10, and then we have county assemblies," he said.
