Education, health, energy, security and infrastructure remain the priorities for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration in its last budget before the August 8 election.
The Sh2.6 trillion budget will raid taxpayers pockets to a tune of Sh188 billion more in taxes to fund the ambitious election budget.
According to the 2017-18 estimates tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, Sh83.8 billion has been set aside for university education, Sh6 billion for technical training institutes and Sh2 billion for recruitment of teachers.
Education will receive another large chunk of the budget, with Sh13.4 billion going to the digital learning project. Sh33 billion has been allocated to subsidised secondary education, while free primary education will receive Sh14 billion.
The Jubilee administration has proposed Sh134.9 billion for improvement of roads. Another Sh75.5 billion will go to railways transport, including the completion of the Mombasa-Nairobi-Naivasha standard gauge railway and relocation of the Kibera-Mukuru railway lines.
Sh2.6 billion has been allocated to upgrade of the Malindi, Isiolo and Lokichogio airports and the Suneka airstrip. Another Sh3.6 billion has been allocated to the Mombasa Port Development Project, while Sh10 billion will go to the Lapsset project.
For health, the government has set aside Sh4.3 billion for free maternal healthcare, Sh4.5 billion for lease of medical equipment and Sh3.6 billion for the Kenya Medical Training College.
Kenyatta National Hospital has an allocation of Sh9.5 billion, while the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital will get Sh6.2 billion. The government has also set aside Sh2.7 billion for student doctors, clinical officers and nurses’ internship programmes.
Sh1.3 billion will go for the rollout of universal healthcare coverage.On security, Sh8.1 billion has been budgeted for leasing police vehicles and Sh14.3 billion for improving operations. The Police Modernisation Programme will receive Sh10 billion. Another Sh5.1 billion has been set aside for the police and prison officers’ medical insurance scheme.
In energy, Sh16.4 billion will go to geothermal development, Sh9.7 billion to Last Mile Connectivity and Sh5.1 billion to rural electrification. The government projects to borrow Sh322 billion from the domestic market to fund budget. Last year, the Treasury borrowed from the local banks to a tune of Sh280 billion.
The Treasury plans to collect Sh15 billion from sale of government goods and services, including tender documents.