Kakamega County Assembly has approved a Sh17,861,292,915 budget estimates for the 2024/2025 financial year.
Out of the estimates, Sh11,911,267,174 has been allocated for recurrent expenditure which is equivalent to 66.7% while Sh5,950,027,741 has been allocated for development expenditure representing 33.3% of the whole budget.
Personnel Emoluments will take a total of Sh6,857,312,177 of the recurrent expenditure while operations and maintenance will consume Sh5,053,312,177.
Among the allocations, the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Public Works and Energy has been allocated Sh1,625,022,499 while the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries & Co-operatives has been allocated Sh845,401,196 and Sh845,384,817 was allocated to the Ministry of Water, Environment, Forestry & Natural Resources.
In the approved budget estimates, the Ministry of Trade, Industrialization & Tourism and that of Education, Science & Technology have been allocated Sh604,700,000 and Sh486,500,000 respectively.
The Office of the Governor has been allocated Sh10,000,000, the Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning will receive Sh 56,000,000 while the ICT, E-Government & Communication Ministry has been allocated Sh100,000,000.
The County Assembly has been allocated Sh1,482,723,167 for the 2024/2025 financial year that will cater for salaries and other expenses.
While moving a motion to support the report of the budget estimates, the Chairman of the Committee on Budget and Appropriations Gildon Shioso who is the Member of County Assembly for Butsotso South urged the County Government to prioritize settling pending bills to comply with the Public Finance Management(PFM)Act.
According to the report, Kakamega County will receive Sh13.4billion Equitable share from the National Government and is projected to realize Sh2.2billion Own Source Revenue(OSR) collection.
The budget estimates also include a balance of Sh1.09 billion from the Equitable Share of 2023/2024 which is being carried forward together with conditional grants of Sh794Million and Sh303billion from the Kenya Devolution Support Program (KDSP).
Additionally, the County Government will receive Conditional Grants amounting to Sh1,152,425,312, this includes Sh250,000,000 from the County Aggregation and Industrial Park Program (CAIPP) Sh. 127,500,000 Community Health Promoters Program (CHPP).
Others are Roads Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) of Sh235,244,397, Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) for Primary Health Care of Sh16,038,750, and Sh37,500,000 for the Second Kenya Devolution Support Program (KDSP II) and Sh151,515,152 for the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (NAVCDP).
By Moses Wekesa
