CS Mbadi Defends Government Fiscal Position

Kenya’s Treasury is yet to release Ksh. 33 billion to NG-CDF with only two months remaining to the end of the financial year. This has sparked serious concern among the lawmakers, who raised alarm over crippled developments in the constituencies due to the government’s delay.

Speaking on Wednesday when he appeared before the National Assembly, after disbursing Ksh.7 billion to the NG-CDF board, Mbadi said the fiscal situation of the government has been brought by the delays to liquidity constraints experienced in the first quarter of the year.

According to the CS, debt repayments as well as pressures from the Gen Z movement, are a number of factors which have hammered the government down financially.

Mbadi told the lawmakers that since January, the National Treasury and the economy at large have been straining revealing that the government has priorities during the first months of the year, hence the delay in releasing NG-CDF was not intentional.

“These are months we must prioritize payments such as school capitation for first term learning,” said Mbadi

“At times, you have to balance between paying debts and supporting development. If debts are not paid, there will be no economy,” he further stated, adding, “It’s not that the Treasury is unwilling to honour the commitments I make in this House. It’s about balancing priorities.”

Despite his clarifications, a section of MPs expressed dissatisfaction, saying the government has commonly made it a trend to delay disbursement of those funds, also giving out unfulfilled promises.

“A lot of what the Minister has said today, he already said in Naivasha,” Bumula MP Wanami Wamboka

“Hon. Mbadi, we respect you. But when you joined the Treasury as an expert, we expected that any commitment you give this House would be backed by certainty,” he added.