The National Assembly was engaged in a heated debate over Supplementary Estimates II for the 2025/26 financial year, with MPs divided over allocations to State House and the Office of the Deputy President.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

During proceedings on Thursday, June 18, the Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Security, which is responsible for overseeing the funding, defended the allocations, saying they are properly appropriated for government operations.

“It is my committee that appropriates and allocates funds to these offices, and I can confirm to the country and this House that these funds are well spent, justified, and are for the good of the country, not an individual,” said Committee Chair and Narok West MP Gabriel Tongoyo.

The defence was prompted by Suba South MP Caroli Omondi’s questioning of the allocations, citing what he termed as unexplained expenditure across the offices.

📌 What You Need to Know

“We have before us a supplementary budget concentrating resources in the Office of the Deputy President for what they call operations, and in State House for what they again call operations. The Department of Internal Security for what they call general administration and National Intelligence Service for what they don’t even describe what it is for,” he said.

Omondi alleged that the funds are used for activities linked to political campaigning, citing a lack of transparency on their intended use, remarks that sparked uproar in the House as other MPs demanded he substantiate the claims.

“We know why this money is being allocated to these particular offices, it is to provide resources for political campaigns. It is confidential expenditure that nobody can verify,” he stated.

Omondi pointed to the breakdown of the supplementary estimates which includes Ksh1 billion for State House, Ksh200 million for the Deputy President’s office and Ksh3.5 billion for the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The heated discussion comes amid ongoing scrutiny of government use of public resources across executive offices.

The National Assembly has approved the Supplementary Estimates II for 2025/26, increasing the national budget by Ksh18.24 billion less than two weeks before the close of the financial year to cover operations and maintenance shortfalls, security requirements, revised Appropriations-in-Aid and development partner-funded programmes.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke