Uhuru allocates Sh34b to cushion Kenyans from high fuel costs

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday at State House, Nairobi, signed into law five parliamentary bills among them 2022 Supplementary I Appropriation Bill (Supplementary Budget).

He has also allocated a sum of Sh34,446,813,295 from the Supplementary Budget to the government fuel stabilisation programme aimed at cushioning Kenyans from the high cost of fuel.

This comes as a relief to Kenyan motorists across the country who have been queuing for the past weeks as filling stations run out of fuel.

Businesses have been hugely affected by the crisis even as the government maintained that there is enough fuel in the country.

The increased prices in fuel commodities had been occasioned by the worsening global energy crisis.

The newly signed Supplementary Budget unlocks Sh139,752,936,287 exchequer funds for use in drought-related interventions, security operations, election preparedness, fuel stabilization; and settlement of pending bills among other pressing public needs.

Others were the 2021 Copyright (Amendment) Bill, the 2020 Kenya Deposit Insurance (Amendment) Bill, the 2022 Industrial Training (Amendment) Bill, and the 2019 Employment (Amendment) Bill.

On security operations, an additional Sh950 million has been set aside for police recruitment to boost the number of the security enforcement officers in the country ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

Based on IEBC's submissions, the Supplementary Budget has allocated an additional Sh8,813,903,557 to the electoral body to enable it to sufficiently prepare for the August 9 polls.

On drought mitigation, the Supplementary Budget took into account the various ongoing Government interventions and allocated additional resources as follows: Sh1.4 billion to the Ministry of Defence for the Kenya Meat Commission's livestock uptake program; and Sh1.2 billion to the State Department for Devolution for direct mitigation efforts.

Other drought related allocations include Sh2.4 billion to the State Department for Social Protection, Senior Citizen Affairs and Special Programmes to cater for relief food to support families affected by drought; and Sh0.9 billion to the State Department for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands for drought management activities.

To augment the ongoing roll out of the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC), the Supplementary Budget allocated Sh6.9 billion to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to cater for teacher remuneration, training and related expenses.

The Ministry of Education was assigned Sh2 billion in the Supplementary Budget for the construction of additional classrooms to ensure a smooth transition from 8.4.4 to the new system.

Additionally, the Supplementary Budget allocated Sh4.9 billion to the NG-CDF so as to ensure that ongoing infrastructure projects in the Constituencies are completed as scheduled; and other social programs such as issuance of bursaries continue uninterrupted.

The Copyright (Amendment) Bill, also signed into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta today, introduces a new formula in the sharing of revenues collected from ring back tunes.

Section 30(c) of the new Copyright law provides as follows: premium rate service provider shall be entitled to 8.5 per cent; telecommunication operator 39.5 per cent; and the artist or owner of the copyright shall be entitled to not less than 52 per cent of the revenue.

On its part, the new Employment (Amendment) Act gives reprieve to job seekers by requiring employers to only ask for clearance or compliance certificates “upon granting an offer of employment to a prospective employee.” Previously, prospective employees were required to avail such documentation during job application.

The Bills were presented to the President for signature by Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto at a brief ceremony attended by Treasury CS Ukur Yatani, Attorney General Paul Kihara and Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi.