Ministers Must Learn From Budget Debacle

7 June 2011

editorial

Nairobi — House Speaker Kenneth Marende’s ruling on Tuesday that Finance ministers can no longer present a budget to Parliament brought home the reality that the country’s governance is changing in a dramatic way.

On Wednesday, there will be no pomp and circumstance that traditionally mark Budget days.

Instead, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta will only read a ministerial statement, and other proceedings of the House will go on as usual, including questions and a scheduled report of a parliamentary committee.

With this, the age-old tradition borrowed from the British parliamentary system, when Budget Day was marked with pageantry, has been consigned to the dustbin of history.

In the past few weeks, debate has been raging as to whether or not the Finance minister can present the Budget in the old-fashioned way.

At the heart of the debate was the interpretation of Article 221 of the new Constitution which provides, inter alia, that financial estimates must be submitted to Parliament two months before the end of the financial year.

This was never acted upon, with Mr Kenyatta arguing last week that the Treasury’s understanding was that this provision of the article would only take effect after the General Election due in August next year.

But clearly that was not the case because the Article was never part of the transition clauses, meaning that it came into force immediately the Constitution was ratified last August.

This debacle should be a lesson. All ministers and government agencies must seek serious interpretation of the Constitution, and make judicious decisions on matters relating to their areas of jurisdiction.

The landscape has changed and there is no turning back.

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