The changes were reflected in the Supplementary Budget of 2024/25 which is currently being reviewed by Parliament.
The National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee on Thursday, July 25 rejected plans by President William Ruto to scrap the Offices of the First and Second Lady.
The Ndindi Nyoro-led committee poked holes into the National Treasury’s plan to fold up the two offices, despite mounting pressure over cost-cutting measures, and the move sees the extension of the offices that Kenyans had demanded that they be scrapped.
The changes were reflected in the Supplementary Budget of 2024/25 which is currently being reviewed by Parliament.
State House Comptroller Katoo Ole Metito, who appeared before the budget committee on Thursday, July 18, had asked for Ksh597 million to shut down the offices by paying the employee benefits for staff who already had contracts with the two offices.
President William Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto alongside Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and his wife Dorcas Gachagua at State House before they departed for Mashujaa Day celebrations at Uhuru Gardens on October 20, 2022. /PCS
The committee adopted the proposal and has now sought to reinstate the offices and their respective budgets.
MPs had argued that shutting down the offices would attract more unnecessary costs for taxpayers and staff would be paid up to the end of their contracts, for work not done.
Metito told MPs that while it was deemed right to close the office, it was important to compensate officers who had signed contracts with the office before it was scrapped.
“These people had contracts and stopping them would attract legal consequences. I understand we need to reduce the budget but we need to do it in a reasonable way not to close the office,” Ole Metito said.
The move is a huge shot in the arm to both Rachel Ruto and Pastor Dorcas Rigathi. President Ruto on Friday, July 5 announced a string of austerity measures in response to the retraction of Finance Bill 2024 which had aimed to raise over Ksh300 billion to finance the 2024/25 financial year budget.
He announced that budget lines providing for the operations of the offices of the First Lady, the spouses of the Deputy President, and the Prime Cabinet Secretary would be removed.
In a roundtable interview, the Head of State revealed that the first two offices would be scrapped from July 1.
“I know citizens have said there is no need for the office of the first lady and second lady but these are offices that have been there but because we have to live within our means, those offices from tomorrow will not be part of our equation because, in the face of what has happened, we have to trim down every other area,” the Head of State revealed.
Pastor Dorcas Rigathi speaking at PEFA Church Kiamariga in Nyeri County on July 7, 2024. /DORCAS RIGATHI
