The government spent only Ksh.70 billion on development in the first half of the 2023/2024 Financial Year, the Controller of Budget has revealed.

This is against the Ksh.783 billion development budget for the financial year, showing just how starved development has been in the period.

Speaking while appearing before the Finance and Planning Committee on Thursday, Controller of Budget Dr. Margaret Nyakang’o said the expenditure was illegal as at least 35% should be spent on development.

The government also received a further Ksh.127 billion from development partners, making the total expenditure on development Ksh.197 billion, representing 15% of the budget.

Dr. Nyakang’o told the Molo MP Kiruai Kimani-led committee that huge amounts continue to be set aside on the recurrent budget, with the government having spent Ksh.561 billion to pay for various expenses including salaries of employees in the same period.

“The total exchequer to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the period was Ksh.731.41 billion (recording 34.7 percent of the total MDAs revised estimates). This comprises Ksh.70.41 billion for development (representing 15.4 percent of the revised net development estimates) and Ksh.561 billion for recurrent (representing 41.2 percent of the revised net recurrent estimates,” she told the committee.

The government also spent heavily on travel, using upto Ksh.11.38 billion compared to the Ksh.8.11 billion that was spent in the same period last financial year.

“This comprised of Ksh.7.67 billion on domestic travel and Ksh.3.71 billion for foreign travel…hospitality was Ksh.2.9 billion during the period,” the Controller of Budget added.

With regards to specific funding of various sectors, General Economic and Commercial Affairs (GECA) sectors received the highest proposition of the exchequer issues at 8.1 percent while Environment Protection, Water and Natural Resources (EPW&NR) sector received the lowest at 3.9 percent.

Six MDAs have already received over 50% of the annual budget, including State House which has already received 59.6% of its annual budget, and Interior ministry having already received 51.4% of its budget.

Others are the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) which has received 75.4%, witness protection agency (51.9%), and State department for performance and delivery management (83.3%).

However, 11 MDAs did not receive a cent of their development budget.