Officers in top government departments may not enjoy privileges of travelling outside the country in coming months, government has revealed.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is rushing against time to complete stalled projects as he seeks to stamp his authority on prudence in financial management and output in terms of services.
Through Acting Treasury boss Ukur Yatani, Uhuru has frozen foreign trips (apart from urgent ones), a move that aims at saving money for completion of projects.
Also affected will be government printing and advertising, a measure that is likely to save over Sh21 billion in a financial year.
The government targets a budget gap of 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2022-23 from an estimated 7.7% in the fiscal year that ended in June, Ukur Yatani said Thursday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “The cuts will be brutal,” he said.
"The cuts will be brutal and sustained... because the success of this government will depend on our dignity as a country to be self-sufficient," he told a public meeting to plan the budget for the next fiscal year.
Projects worth 396.9 billion shillings ($3.6 billion) in Kenya have stalled as of June 2018, National Assembly budget committee chairman Kimani Ichung’wah said at the same meeting on spending plans.
The implementation of projects such as construction of roads, rail links and dams was halted partly because the government stopped disbursing funds.
Julius Muia, the finance ministry's principal secretary, told the same meeting that the budget deficit was expected to fall to 4.8% of GDP in 2020/21.
Muia also said the Treasury now expects Kenya's economy to expand by 6.0% this calendar year, rather than the 6.3% growth it forecast in June and slowing from 6.3% growth in 2018.
"In the face of the slowdown in global growth, our government has adopted an all-inclusive fiscal consolidation policy package, encompassing fiscal, monetary and financial policies," Yatani said.
The cabinet on Thursday approved 6.9 billion shillings for infrastructure that will support the development of a special economic zone and completion of a phase of a railway partly funded by China.
It's believed that the government spends up to Sh10 billion on travelling alone per year. Uhuru has been accused by economists of over borrowing.