MPs push for bigger budget, Ksh.150M set aside to track social media users

Part of those amendments is an increment of Ksh.150 million earmarked for the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to procure and service a system with the potential to track social media users in the country. 

Some of those changes have come at a cost, with institutions like the National Fund for the Disabled of Kenya now defunded by up to Ksh.400 million.

After weeks of consulting with various government departments, the budget and appropriations committee has tabled before the National Assembly what it terms as the final budget estimates for the financial year 2025-2026.

The national police service could gain up to Ksh.1.8 billion to finance additional recurrent expenditures. Out of that, the office of the Inspector General will receive Ksh.800 million more for police operations.

The office of the deputy IG in charge of the Administrative police gets Ksh.60 million more for operations.

And to enhance the DCI's work, the Budget committee is proposing to reallocate a total of Ksh.150 million to procure and run an Optimus 3.0 system. 

To procure Optimus 3.0 Equipment, the committee has set aside Ksh.50 million. The committee further increased the recurrent expenditure by Ksh.100 million for “DCI forensic lab OPTIMUS 3.0 Social Media.

Experts say this has the potential to track social media users in the country, fetching identities of users across different platforms and establishing who is posting what, where, and using what gadgets, traceable through connection data.

And while the overall increment of the budget is just Ksh.33 billion for the national government, several internal shifts have been approved by the Sam Atandi-led committee.

At the executive office of the president, the estimates have been increased to Ksh.5.37 billion. This is after increasing the recurrent expenditure by Ksh.455 million, which has also caused a cut of Ksh.550 million from the development plan.

As such, capital transfers to the National Fund for the Disabled of Kenya, which is considered development expenditure, have been cut by Ksh.400 million. 

Part of the cut, being used to meet a Ksh.44 million bill for operations and maintenance, that includes replacing, “the old fleet of motor vehicles for chief of staff and the head of public service.” 

The government printer has also attracted an increment of Ksh.123 million to procure modern equipment.

The office of the deputy president has also benefited from a Ksh.150 million raise, attributed to operating expenses, now hitting Ksh.3.07 billion in total estimates.

The Ministry of Defence has had its estimates increased by Ksh.13 billion, hitting Ksh.213 billion, the largest budget for the department in history.

The committee indicated that the increment comprises Ksh.2 billion for recruitment, Ksh.5 billion for KDF operations in Somalia and Ksh.6 billion for other security operations.

But there are losers too. The Teachers Service Commission is set to lose Ksh.570 million in total, with the teachers' capacity building vote losing Ksh.620 million.

University education is losing Ksh.920 million; Ksh.405 million reduction for primary education which includes a reduction in capitation, while secondary education is set to lose a net of Ksh.4 billion in allocation, including a combined Ksh.5 billion shilling cut in capitation for secondary and junior secondary.

The National Assembly is expected to debate the report and if approved, will form the basis for the budget statement by CS Mbadi this week.