Ruto defends State House budget allocation

President William Ruto has defended the move to increase the budget allocation for the State House saying this was to cater to the operations of the office of his deputy.

According to Ruto, the office in which he served as the deputy during retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure was no longer functional as it had been deprived of funding

“The operations of the Office of the Deputy President had been shut and if you have to reinstate its operations we have to increase the funds,” Ruto said.

He explained that he used to fund all the operations of the office using his own pocket.

Ruto revealed this during a televised media interview Sunday.

Noting he respects his Deputy (Rigathi Gachagua), Ruto said he does not want him to undergo a similar ordeal.

In the 2020-21 budget, Ruto's office was the most affected by the budget estimates having been slashed to Sh563 million from Sh1.2 billion in the previous year.

In the spending plan, the domestic travel, subsistence and other transportation costs were cut by half from Sh193.6 million to Sh96.8 million.

Harambee House Annex, which houses the DP, had its hospitality budget reduced by Sh174 million and foreign travel by about Sh50 million.

Also slashed was the budget for fuel and lubricants, which fell from Sh28 million to Sh14 million.

Another one was “other operating expenses” was reduced by Sh204 million while maintenance costs for his vehicles were whittled down to Sh11 million.

Allocation for foreign travel dropped from Sh83 million the previous financial year to Sh33 million.

“They stopped giving us money one and a half years ago. The DP has been using his private means to run his political activities,”  a close aide said then.

The move was seen as a way of cutting him down to size and possibly stop him from using the taxpayers' money on his campaigns.

“I want my deputy to be in an office that works, my deputy is very busy. Today he can hardly get time, he is permanently in office,” he added.