One of the casualties of massive budget cuts include the office of the Deputy President of Kenya Dr William Ruto.
The DP’s office budget has been cut more than half by the National Treasury.
Ruto’s office was allocated Sh1.22 billion in the current financial year but the figure has been slashed to Sh563 million.
The Star Newspaper reports that National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani, in the draft financial year 2020-21 estimates before Parliament, has proposed to slash the DP’s local travel expenses by about Sh100 million.
The DP’s hospitality expenses have also been reduced by Sh174 million while foreign travel is set to go down from Sh89 million to Sh33 million. Ruto office’s allocation for fuel and lubricants has also been reduced to Sh14 million from Sh28 million in the current budget. A charge labelled ‘other operating expenses’ has been reduced by Sh204 million while his vehicles will be maintained at Sh11 million– half of the current budget.
DP Ruto’s woes
Although the budget cuts are not in any way targetting the DP politically or personally, as all other ofices incuding state house have had budget cuts, there’ve been a tussle between the offices of the presidency.
DP Ruto allied legislators have accused President Uhuru Kenyatta on reneging on their memorandum of understanding where Uhuru was supposed to leave power to William Ruto in 2022.
The Jubilee ‘B’ party have accused Uhuru of usingSecretary general (SG) Raphael Tuju to frustrate DP Ruto by changing the leadership of the part illegally. The party had received instructions from the SG to change the party’s National Management Committee members to Lucy Macharia, Prof Marete Marangu, Walter Nyambati, Jane Nampaso and James Waweru.
It was said that the original owners, i.e. Veronica Maina, Fatuma Shukri and Pamela Mutua have resigned after securing jobs in government.
In mid-April, the DP Ruto allied MPs protested the changes seeking the Registrar of Political Parties to cancel the appointments.
The MPS wrote a letter to the Registrar stating:
“Any changes involving the party in any way must be sanctioned by the relevant party organs through a formal meeting convened and resolutions passed,” one of the letters by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria states.
It adds; “The purported changes to the membership of the National Management Committee or any other organ of the party is illegal, fraudulent and affront to the values of the party.”
Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju in April affirmed that the officials have been replaced because they secured jobs in government.
“Nobody has been sacked. All these people have left because they got some jobs in government which conflict with their positions as officials of the party,” he said.
The war in Jubilee continues.
